


Neon and Dust

by andthatisterrible



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Cyberpunk, F/F, Space Ships, space cats and dogs, space space, space swords, space western
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-03-07 12:14:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 28,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13434525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andthatisterrible/pseuds/andthatisterrible
Summary: The Shoot space western au that no one asked for.The Mayhem Twins are doing a predictably terrible job of keeping their heads down and hiding from the evil galactic overlord AI, Samaritan, when they just so happen to cross paths with an old 'friend' (it's Root, okay. Root is the friend). Featuring Shaw with a bionic arm, Reese with a ridiculous cowboy jacket, and Root as a gay space disaster with a pet space cat who has it out for Reese.Note: this hasn't been abandoned (as of Feb '19). I am just updating it excruciatingly slowly.





	1. Space Jail

**Author's Note:**

> There's a chance the rating goes up? Probably? I dunno, I always say that. Leaving it at M at the moment (for some violence) since I haven't actually written anything E-rated.
> 
> First three chapters are written and got posted on tumblr before here. I'll post the other two over the next few days. No real update schedule.

“Call.”

Shaw looked around the table over the top of her cards. “You boys sure about that?”

The sound of a ship passing overhead roared through the bar and the entire building shook slightly, bottles rattling on shelves. Sounded like a freighter to her, probably headed towards the nearest terminal to blink the hell away from this dusty hellhole on the outskirts of nowhere.

“I said call, you damned cyborg.” The big guy across the table from her had been getting angrier and mouthier over the last few rounds as the little blue numbers on the credits bar in front of Shaw had ticked steadily upwards.

Shaw almost rolled her eyes at the insult; she was pretty sure he didn’t actually know about her arm. She dropped her cards on the table. “Read em and weep.”

She heard quiet mutters throughout the bar as everyone took in her cards.

“You’re cheating.” The man on her left stood up and leaned on his fist on the table, trying to tower over her.

“Maybe you’ve just got shit luck.” Shaw slouched down further in her chair, the smallest of smiles playing around her lips. It was really too damn hot for the fight that was inevitably going to break out. Despite the fans turning lazily on the ceiling, there wasn’t even the semblance of a breeze in the dark bar.

“Well, your luck just ran out.”

The man reached behind himself, presumably for his gun, but Shaw didn’t wait to know for sure. Her left arm shot out under the table and clamped onto his upper leg, squeezing hard enough that she felt something snap. He screamed incoherently, and collapsed to the floor.

There was a long moment of silence and then the other two men at the table both jumped up, reaching for their guns. Shaw finally did roll her eyes and kicked the table over at them. She used the time it took them to recover to unfold herself from her chair and stand up, rolling her shoulders back and cracking her knuckles. The knuckles on her right hand, anyway.

Her left arm, hidden beneath her long coat and a very special glove a friend had gotten for her, was a bit…different. She’d have to pull her punches a little in this place or someone would catch on. (The man whose leg she had just pulverized could be a problem, but it had been so worth it).

Or maybe she could take them all on with only her right arm. Sounded like a good challenge. She wasn’t carrying any weapons today, didn’t want to give the Local Enforcement officers any reason to take a shot at her.

In her peripheral vision she saw five or six other people from the bar slowly moving in.

Looked like it was going to be a fun assignment after all.

When the Local Enforcement officers got to the scene five minutes later, Shaw was the only one left standing. Mostly standing. One of her new friends had smashed a bottle on her leg and done a bit of damage, but nothing too serious.

“Empty your hands and turn around!”

Shaw sighed and dropped the man she’d been holding by the throat. She turned around slowly and raised her hands.

“Don’t want any trouble, gentlemen.” She tried to look harmless, though she was aware that given the large number of injured, groaning bodies around her it was probably a tough sell. But pummeling Enforcement officers was not on today’s agenda so she needed to play along. These guys were pretty pathetic for even Local Enforcement officers, definitely the bottom of the barrel, but they still technically reported into the Interplanetary Republic (and, in doing so, Samaritan) and that meant not causing a scene.

Well, more of a scene.

She should have gotten out of there sooner, but it was too late to regret that.

“Arrest her,” snapped the leader of the squad. “And don’t try anything or we’ll open fire.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, officer.”

Reese was going to have a hissy fit when he bailed her out.

* * *

 

“Finally.” Shaw stood up when the Enforcement officer approached the cell door.

He looked at her and sneered. “Oh, you’re not getting out. We’ve just got some company for you.”

Another officer came down the hall, shoving a woman in front of him.

“Oh,  _hell_ no.” Shaw stalked over to the bars. “You are  _not_ putting her in here with me.”

“You two know each other?”

Shaw glared at the other woman, took in the mischievous look in her eyes and the shit-eating grin on her face.

“I know her type.”

“I thought I was  _your_  type, sweetie.”

Shaw was tempted to give herself away and just punch straight through the bars and knock the woman’s teeth in. Instead, she fumed quietly and made herself step back so they could open the door.

The first officer shoved her new companion into the cell and slammed the gate behind her. Both men turned to leave.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” the woman called after them, holding up her still-restrained wrists.

“Those stay on,” the first officer said. “We don’t want any repeats of what happened earlier.” Both officers disappeared through the metal door at the end of the hall.

“Well, I can’t say much for the hospitality here, but at least the company is excellent.”

Shaw made a disgusted noise. “Why the hell are you here, Root?”

Root pulled experimentally on the metal cuffs. “I got arrested, obviously.”

“Yeah, I don’t buy that for even a second.”

Root only smiled and waltzed past her to perch daintily on the edge of the bench that ran along the back wall of the small holding cell.

“The officer who arrested me was quite serious, I promise you. Also very grumpy. These cuffs are way tighter than regulation. He must have been having a bad day.”

“Any day that involves you is a bad day.” Shaw chose to lean against the wall rather than sit anywhere near Root. Her leg still hurt from the fight earlier, but she’d examined it and determined the cuts were very superficial. She’d have a hell of a bruise though.

“Really? Because I can recall a couple days you definitely seemed to enjoy that involved me.” Root did that thing she probably thought was winking.

Shaw wasn’t in the mood to talk about the days Root had referenced, no matter how much she’d enjoyed them. Most of them. Maybe if she hadn’t ended up unconscious in a cheap hostel with her guns (and clothing) missing after their first run-in it would have been a better memory. Her subsequent run-ins with Root had been a lot tenser. Except for one.

She remained silent and, for a few blissful seconds, Root did as well. But good things never lasted.

“The gloves are a nice touch. Those are modulating gloves, aren’t they? Hear they’re pretty hard to come by.” Root had been eyeing her in a way that was far too familiar for Shaw’s tastes, so she was a little surprised that it was her gloves she’d chosen to comment on.

“Friend got them for me. Means to an end. Help me avoid unwanted attention.” They were actually illegal, like any other clothing item that masked the texture and feel of a biometal prosthesis, but Zoe had connections. “Well,  _most_  unwanted attention.”

Root only smiled at the jab. “Local Enforcement officers really aren’t the brightest, are they? Most regulations have them practically strip search prisoners. You’re safer here than you would be on a Hub planet, but Samaritan has eyes everywhere. Even out here.”

“I’m only in here for a bar brawl. Not like I robbed a Galactic bank.”

Root’s smirk grew more pronounced.

Shaw stared at her. “You didn't…”

Root leaned back against the wall looking far too pleased with herself. “What can I say? A girl’s gotta eat somehow.”

“That’s a felony, Root. They put you up against a wall and shoot you for that.”

Root shrugged. “They’re welcome to try.”

Shaw thought about pressing the point, but decided it was none of her business. Well, almost none.

“Your…boss…gonna get you out of this one then?”

“She’s your boss, too.”

That was a fairly complicated issue which Shaw had no intention of diving into while stuck in a holding cell.

“How is it they never find that thing in your head when they arrest you?”

Root half-raised her bound hands towards her right ear before stopping herself. “Same way they never spot your arm, I’d imagine. They’re very unimaginative and stupid, and full body scanners cost too much for a backwater place like this.”

Shaw pushed off the wall and took a seat next to Root on the bench. “Let me check it.”

Root retreated fractionally. “It’s fine, Shaw.”

It was the first time Root had used her name since she’d been dumped in the cell and something about the way she said it made Shaw scowl.

“Bionics are a crapshoot. Stuff can go wrong in all sorts of ways, requires frequent checkups and observation. Which I’m betting you’ve never done.”

The smile on Root’s face was forced now, her eyes wary.

“Stop being such a baby.” Shaw grabbed her arm to hold her in place and then pushed the hair back so she could get a look at her right ear. Under the longer top layer, Root had shaved her hair very short. She’d done something or another to it so all the long hair fell around the back and right side of her head, leaving the short hair visible on the left side so everyone could see the design she’d had shaved into the cut. Only Root would think it was cool to have binary code shaved into her hair as a fashion statement.

But Shaw figured the entire look was also to cover up and draw attention away from her right ear.

There was a nasty, curved scar behind Root’s ear. It had healed as well as possible given the circumstances, but she’d had it reopened a few months after the initial injury to get her…upgrade.

The tiny metal jack and mic behind her ear were almost impossible to spot unless someone knew what they were looking for, and the rest of the tech she’d had added was embedded under her skin and couldn’t be seen without a scanner. Shaw checked the area for any discoloration or other signs that the implant was being rejected by her body. Biometal did a damn good job of integrating with tissue, but it was still a long ways away from perfect and she’d seen what happened when the body rejected it.

“Looks pretty clean,” she admitted begrudgingly. She’d been the one to patch it up the first time, when the injury had been fresh. That had been the less-tense meeting she’d had with Root since she’d been so out of it that Shaw hadn’t been worried about her causing trouble. Mostly she’d been worried Root was going to die in the room of the hostel Shaw had been staying in and she’d have to explain the corpse to Enforcement officers. That had been back when the worst Enforcement would have done was just execute them. Before Samaritan.

She hadn’t liked seeing Root like that: scared and half-dead. She was usually so damn cocky and sure of herself, but that night….

“She’d let me know if there was a problem,” Root said, brushing her hair back over her ear. She dropped her cuffed hands onto the arm Shaw was using to hold her in place. “Your arm never gave you any trouble.”

Shaw only felt the faintest whisper of her touch. Even if she hadn’t been wearing her coat, she wouldn’t have fully been able to feel it. Her arm was well-made, a blend of biometal and hard chrome, the best money could buy, but it was only as good as the available technology which meant her sense of touch was very limited with it. Root’s fingers ran down her arm in a gentle caress.

“Don’t touch me,” Shaw growled, grabbing Root’s wrist with her very human right arm and pulling it away.

“You touched first, sweetie.” Root didn’t fight against her though and actually slid away a little once she was free. Shaw had forgotten how much she disliked having her right ear touched or even examined.

A longer silence stretched between them this time and Shaw wondered if she was going to be left in peace until Reese showed up.

“So what did  _you_  get arrested for?”

Apparently she wasn’t that lucky.

“Bar fight. Some nice fellows thought I was cheating at cards.”

Root chuckled. “You  _were_  cheating at cards.”

“Not my fault they couldn’t cheat better than me.” She hadn’t even been trying that hard. “How’d you know I was cheating, anyway?”

Root just raised an eyebrow as if that had been the dumbest question Shaw could ever ask.

“Oh, right. Your boss is a creep.” Why had she bothered asking if she knew?

Root shrugged. “She protects you more than you know. She protects all of us. Even that big lug who hangs out on your ship.”

“Technically it was his ship first.”

The Indigo Five hadn’t had Shaw’s name on her register until a year ago. She’d started out as their former employer’s gift to Reese and hadn’t even had a name beyond her ship classification type and ID, but Shaw had insisted on naming her and then, after it had just been the two of them left, Reese had decided Shaw should own her.

“You two still pretending to be a transport ship?” Root rattled her cuffs a bit as if uncomfortable.

“If your boss is tattling on us then you know we are.”

“Got a contract from this place yet?”

“Not so much.”

The blistering hot town on the tiny planet in the middle of nowhere that they’d landed on to deal with their number wasn’t much good for finding real work.

“I know someone who might need a lift off this place. They can pay well, too.”

“Oh, yeah?” Shaw realized about half a second later where this was going. “Oh. No. Absolutely not. You are  _not_  allowed on my ship.”

“I can pay. Double your rates.”

Shaw clenched her jaw. They  _really_ needed some credits. For food and fuel if nothing else. But she didn’t trust Root in a jail cell and she definitely didn’t trust her on her ship.

“Thought you had your own ship. That pile of junk finally break down?”

“She’s not a pile of junk! She’s unique.”

Shaw just shook her head. The little stealth fighter Root piloted around didn’t belong away from a fleet. The thing couldn’t even go through a terminal on its own unless she snuck it through and it wasn’t designed to deal with the forces blinking between terminals put on a ship. From what she knew, Root got around by using her stealth cloaking to latch on to larger ships going her way.

“Keep telling yourself that.” She noted that Root had avoided her question. If she wasn’t going to tell her why she needed transport then all the more reason Shaw wasn’t letting her on board.

“Please?” Root sounded sincere and it made Shaw shift uncomfortably. “It’s important, Sameen.”

Ugh.

“Tell you what, you somehow manage to get out of here and back to my ship before me,  _and_ pay me double, then we’ve got a deal.”

Root was silent for a second and then nodded. “Okay, Shaw, we’ll play it your way.”

Shaw decided the matter was settled and leaned back against the wall and shut her eyes.

Her eyes shot back open when a heavy weight dropped in her lap.

“But playing it my way is definitely more fun,” Root murmured from inches away from her face. She dropped her bound hands over Shaw’s head to hold her in place and scooted forward to get her knees fully up on the bench on either side of Shaw’s legs.

“Knock it off, Root.” Shaw grabbed her by the hips and tried to shove her off, careful not to grab too hard with her left arm. She didn’t  _really_  want to break Root in half. Maybe only bruise her a little.

“Say the word and I’ll get up, but do you have a better way to pass the time while we wait?” Root asked.

When Shaw failed to tell her to move, Root pressed herself up against her as much as she could and leaned over to put her lips right next to her ear. “I love it when you put your hands on me. Especially that one.”

“Forgot about your creepy bionic kink.” Shaw made a half-hearted effort to pull Root’s arms back over her head, but she’d laced her fingers into her hair so the whole exercise was only causing Shaw to get her hair yanked which was…not helping with her attempts to remain unaffected.

There was also the small issue of the great view down the front of Root’s shirt she currently had.

“It’s not a bionic kink. It’s just a you kink.” Root pulled back enough to grin at her and then leaned in again to gently capture Shaw’s earlobe between her teeth.

Shaw twitched slightly at the feeling and gave up on trying to untangle Root’s hands.

“Fuck it,” she muttered.

“Mmm, pretty sure it’s me you should be fucking.”

“Shut up.”

She’d forgotten how great Root was at kissing: the quick bites on the lip, the tiny satisfied noises that Shaw enjoyed way more than she’d ever admit, how quickly she opened her mouth for Shaw’s tongue.

This was not how she’d seen her day going, but she wasn’t going to complain.

She pulled her gloves off and ran her hands up Root’s back under her shirt. At the touch of the cold, hard fingers of her left hand Root shivered and pulled back with a small gasp.

Shaw let her hand drift up Root’s side. Her thumb slid around to the front to rest over her ribs, right below her breast. Things didn’t feel the same to her left hand as they did to her regular hand; all the sensations were muffled, and skin especially felt weird, almost like it had a slight electric current running through it. Touching people, running her hands over bare skin, was a strange but thrilling sensation.

“You know, I broke someone’s leg with this arm earlier today,” she said in a low, dangerous voice. “Snapped the bones and tendons like they were nothing.” She tightened her grip a little. She could exert just a fraction more pressure and break Root’s ribs to pieces.

Root moaned in her ear, enjoying the situation way more than anyone with even a lick of common sense should.

“Maybe when we get back to your ship you can give me a full demonstration,” she breathed.

“Thought I might right now. No better way to pass the time, right?” There didn’t look to be any security cameras in this crappy jail.

“Sorry, sweetie. We’re about to get interrupted.”

Shaw’s eyes narrowed. She was willing to bet Root had known that  _before_  she’d started all this. It would be just like her to get Shaw all worked up and then leave her high and dry.

She grabbed her by the waist and pulled her up and off her. This time Root didn’t resist her at all, getting her feet back onto the floor and lifting her arms back over her head. She straightened her clothes out and smirked at Shaw.

“I do appreciate the enthusiasm, but you might want to put your gloves back on now.”

Shaw cursed and scooped her gloves up off the floor, slipping them on. If she touched someone with her left hand with the gloves on the temperature and texture made her touch feel almost like she had a normal hand underneath.

Root sat back on the bench next to her, rubbing at where Shaw’s thumb had pressed into her ribs. “I’m going to have a nasty bruise there, Sameen.” She sounded quite pleased.

Shaw’s breathing had almost returned to normal. She glared at Root.

“I hope you get shot.”

If anything that only made Root smirk more.

The sound of metal screeching as the door at the end of the cellblock opened announced the return of an Enforcement agent.

“You.” The agent pointed at Shaw. “Made bail. Let’s go.”

“What about me, officer?” Root was doing something Shaw could only describe as simpering. She almost rolled her eyes again.

“You aren’t going anywhere ever again. At least not until someone comes to collect you and have a chat about those missing funds. Then you’ll get a quick trip to a shallow grave if you’re lucky.”

Shaw moved out of the cell as soon as she was able to, waiting as the officer locked the door again. Root moved over to thread her fingers through the bars and smile at her.

“See you later, Sameen.”

* * *

 

“I’d say I can’t believe you got arrested again, but that would be a lie.” Reese sounded resigned.

As if  _he_  didn’t do his fair share of getting on the wrong side of Enforcement.

Shaw squinted and shielded her eyes from the brightness with a hand. She’d left her hat on the ship so it wouldn’t get damaged in whatever brawl she’d ended up in. There was always a brawl to be had on worlds like this. She’d worn her coat though, a faded black leather duster that was definitely too hot for the climate but that she’d be damned if she took off.

Reese also had his coat on despite the weather, though his was a normal length and had ridiculous fringe on it that he thought made him look very cool.

It really didn’t.

“Finished the mission, didn’t I?”

“We were supposed to save the guy’s life. You broke his arm in three places.”

“He’s alive, isn’t he?”

She’d warned the guy off in the middle of the fight. Reese had told her he’d already stowed away on a ship headed to another system, injured arm and all.

The main street of the small town was almost deserted in the midday heat. There was a rusted-looking automaton jerkily painting the side of a shop. Damn thing was such an old model it was practically an antique. Shaw wondered if it would fall to pieces if she touched it.

She half-expected a tumbleweed to roll down the road.

“What the hell are we doing in this place, Reese?”

“The Machine gave us a number and it’s a lot easier to get away with stuff like that stunt you just pulled out here in the Ore Colonies than it would be back in the Central Systems.”

She missed the cities on the planets of the Central Systems, especially the ones on the Hub Planets. Everything there was dark alleys, neon signs, and backstreet criminals. No one cared how many biometal limbs you had and, if you had the credits, you could stay at a place which had a real bathtub. She missed bathtubs quite a lot.

Of course there were also some pretty compelling reasons for them to stay the hell away from the Hub Planets these days, though everywhere in the Interplanetary Republic carried some risk for them.

There was a fading sign tacked to the front of the bar she’d partially-demolished that showed a featureless human figure offering a helping hand to another human figure lying on the ground. ‘Samaritan: Helping You Help The Galaxy’ it said under the picture. Shaw rolled her eyes. An Artificial General Intelligence posing as a technological breakthrough in communications systems was somehow the least and greatest of the galaxy’s problems these days.

Speaking of problems….

“Guess who I ran into?” she asked.

“About half the town. With your fist.” There was a small smile on Reese’s lips though.

“Yeah, oops.” Probably the most entertainment they’d had here in years. “Root got tossed in jail with me.”

“Root?” Reese almost missed a step. “Saw her face pop up on the wanted boards network while I was waiting for you. Whoever her latest identity is robbed a Galactic bank yesterday.”

So she hadn’t been kidding about that part. Shaw was genuinely impressed.

“Maybe she was trying to hide out here.” She couldn’t imagine Root getting caught if she didn’t want to be. Especially not by the weak excuse for Local Enforcement officers that this place had to offer. Why the hell had she been in that cell with her?

They reached the edge of town and turned to head down the dirt trail that led out to the shambles of the town port.

“She have anything interesting to say?”

“Uh, no. Not a thing.” Nothing Reese would want to hear about anyway.

“Weird coincidence, I guess.” Reese didn’t sound convinced. Working for the Machine had left both of them highly suspicious of coincidences.

“Guess so.”

The town port was basically a flat stretch of dirt with a rusted fence around it. There couldn’t have been more than five other ships there.

They could see the Indigo Five once they got a little closer since she was one of the larger ships in the small port. She was only a mid-sized cargo ship, not more than 20 meters high, an Interplanet Rapid Transit model. An IRT: Thornhill, to be exact, the only one in existence. And maybe Reese had made a few…alterations when he’d gotten her. And maybe Shaw had made a few of her own since. She was a damn good ship in Shaw’s opinion.

And more importantly, she was home.

“Isn’t that…” Reese pointed towards the Indigo Five.

Shaw groaned. “She didn’t.”

There was a small dock area on top of the Indigo Five meant for a smaller, short-range ship to attach to, though they hadn’t had a smaller ship in ages. However there definitely was a ship there now. Shaw would have recognized that battered pile of junk anywhere.

“Thought you said she was in prison still?” Reese asked as Shaw unlocked the side-hatch and spun the pressure-lock wheel.

“This is Root. She cheats.”

“Says the person who had four aces in their hand and another two up their sleeve.”

“There’s cheating and then there’s Root.”

She found their new passenger in the bridge, her feet propped up on the console.

She was wearing Shaw’s hat.

“Hey, sweetie,” Root said, dropping her feet to the ground and spinning the chair around to smile at her. “Love the hat.” She tipped the brim up with two fingers.

It was a wide-brimmed leather hat that matched Shaw’s coat. She’d broken someone’s nose for looking at it cross-eyed and Root was just…wearing it.

She was going to murder her.

“Well, my ship is attached and ready to go, so I’ll just go make sure Mortimer hasn’t gotten himself into trouble while you sort things out up here.” Root took the hat off and put it crookedly on top of Shaw’s head, giving it a little pat.

“Oh, and here’s my itemized list of possessions I’m bringing on board. I know John is a stickler for procedures.” Root waved a long piece of paper at Shaw who took it out of reflex. Root slipped by her into the narrow hall leading to the rest of the ship, only brushing up against Shaw’s butt a little bit on the way.

Reese was on his way in and stood well clear to let Root pass.

“Uh, hi, Root.”

“Hey, big lug. Long time, no see.”

“Seem to recall you emptied my pockets and took my gun last time we ran into each other.”

“Bygones,” Root said dismissively. “That was months ago. I’m a changed gal.” She wandered away down the ship corridor.

“Shaw?” Reese raised an eyebrow at her.

“I’m going to rip her into pieces and put each piece out the airlock in a different system.”

“Well, that sounds fun, but without credits we can’t afford to fly to all these systems. She paying at least?”

Shaw got ahold of herself. “Yeah, she said double our usual rate.” She could probably afford it, too, if she’d just robbed a bank. They’d have to have a chat about how clean her credit lines were though.

“That’s something anyway.” He nodded his chin towards the paper she was holding. “Love letter?”

Shaw reminded herself that she needed Reese alive.

“Itemized list of all her shit.” She shoved it at him, not wanting to deal with it, and dropped into the pilot chair. She needed something to punch. Or shoot. Maybe punch and then shoot.

“Items: One (1) elite space hacker. She itemized herself?”

Shaw dropped her face into her hand. “She would.”

“One super cool space stealth fighter, Paradox. IRT: Turing model.”

Shaw didn’t look up. She was going to leave her face in her palm until he finished reading; it would save time.

“Three pairs of space boots, black leather, light wear and tear.”

“Space boots? What the fuck is a space boot?”

“Three space shirts, blue, red, and black.” He made a face. “I’m pretty sure she just put the word space in front of every item on this list.”

“There is something massively wrong with her.”

“Two pairs steel-reinforced, extra padded…space cuffs with blue fuzz space trim. Uh, what?”

“Oh god.”

“One sparkly, purple space vibra…”

Shaw shot up and snatched the list away from him. “I think I get the idea.”

“I mean, we’re just taking her somewhere and dropping her off, how bad could it be?”

Shaw looked over the rest of the list, shaking her head in disbelief.

“You have no idea.” An item near the bottom jumped out at her. She remembered what Root had said as she was leaving…something about making sure Mortimer wasn’t getting into trouble. “Reese. What the hell is a space cat?”

As if on command, the yowl of an upset feline echoed through the hallways of the Indigo Five, followed by excited barking.

“Dunno but we’d better go make sure our space dog doesn’t chase it into the engine.”

Shaw crushed the list in her left hand. What had she ever done to deserve this?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone curious, the Indigo Five is a bit smaller than Serenity from Firefly. Similar ship type to that and the Bebop from Cowboy Bebop. I’m figuring out some more details on her still, but I’ve found some concept art that matches what I was thinking.


	2. The Indigo Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this chapter isn’t quite as fun as the last one due to world-building info dump, but eh.

Shaw had taken one look at the unnecessarily large feline that Bear had attempted to corner in one of the storage compartments and decided that Reese could deal with the damn thing. She did wait around long enough to encourage Bear to stick up for himself, but the big dog was only interested in following the cat around with a sad look in his eyes, hurt that his new friend wanted nothing to do with him.

It figured that Root’s cat would be a jerk to her dog.

Mortimer, as Root had called him, was the size of a small dog himself, and while nowhere near as large as Bear, the regal long-haired black and white menace carried himself like a king.

“What the hell is that thing?” Reese asked, standing behind her as if afraid the cat would attack without warning.

“Looks an awful lot like your problem,” Shaw said and ducked past him into the narrow hallway, ignoring his indignant grumbling. Neither of them was really in command per se; they were equal partners in the transport business. Most differences of opinion were settled by coin flips, squabbling, or someone getting ‘accidentally’ locked in their room for a few hours (Shaw had never been the someone). Reese didn’t follow her down the hall, so she claimed that as a victory.

And besides, her task was equally unpleasant.

Despite her claims to the contrary, Root had been nowhere in the vicinity of her monstrous pet, and Shaw needed to know where they were supposed to be hauling her to. And, more importantly, sorting out the question of payment.

None of the unused crew cabins had any sign of her presence and the galley, engine room, cargo bay, infirmary, and bridge were all empty.

There was only one thing on the Indigo Five (besides Mortimer) that belonged to Root, and Shaw headed up to the tiny hanger at the top of the ship.

While a small ship could attach itself to the outside dock of the Indigo Five, the entire dock could also lower into the hanger and be sealed inside to protect the smaller vessel from the stress of blinking. Root had found the control panel on her own and lowered Paradox down into the hanger. The heavy doors in the ceiling were shut and sealed now and Root was lying on top of her ship on her stomach, dangling most of her upper body into the cockpit as she rummaged around.

“What the hell type of animal did you bring on my ship?” Shaw asked by way of greeting. “If he scratches Bear he’s getting airlocked.”

Root looked up. “Mortimer is a sweetheart,” she protested. “A total softie. He wouldn’t harm a soul.”

Mortimer’s paws had been enormous, way too large for any domestic cat Shaw had ever seen. He looked like a predator.

“Well,” Root amended, “he  _might_  have ripped a man’s throat out once. But he was only trying to protect me. He’s very loyal.”

Shaw gave Reese even odds against the hell beast.

“He’s going to cost you extra. Excessive shedding. Speaking of which, how do you plan to pay for this little trip? Double our rates, remember?”

Root hopped down from the side of Paradox, using Shaw’s shoulders to steady herself. When she didn’t immediately remove her hands, Shaw brushed them away and retreated to a safe distance. She wouldn’t put it past Root to try and knock her and Reese out and attempt to fly the Indigo Five herself. Probably right into a mountain.

Root pulled a small credit chip drive out of her pocket and held it out. “No tricks this time, Shaw. All of this is on the level.”

“With you I’m going to assume that’s bullshit until proven otherwise.”

She stalked over to the computer terminal set in the wall and inserted the credit drive. Most people used their implant chips for things like money transfers, but larger amounts and shady deals still relied heavily on the little credit drives. Also she wasn’t sure if Root  _could_  use an implant chip what with being on Samaritan’s most wanted list and all.

The amount on the drive was absurdly high, but the transfer account appeared legitimate. Shaw pocketed the drive and turned around to find Root hovering in her personal space.

“These funds clean? They better not come back to bite me in the ass.”

“The credits definitely won’t be the thing to bite you in the ass, Shaw.”

She never let up, did she?

“Fine. Let’s say I believe that this isn’t going to get Galactic Enforcement on my tail. Where are we taking you? Amount in the drive is enough to get you all the way to the Hub Planets and then some.”

Which was a bit ridiculous. Melior, the so-called capital planet of the Interplanetary Republic was five terminals away. Part of the reason they were on this godforsaken planet was because of its distance from anywhere developed.

And now that she thought about it, Root obviously wanted to go to Melior. She’d probably wanted a ride with the Indigo Five specifically because they were just as eager to stay off the radar as she was, but could also dock at Genesis, the capital city, without attracting attention and with Paradox safely hidden.

“Melior? Really, Root? Your boss put you up to this? Or is this your own dumbass idea?”

“I wouldn’t be going if it wasn’t important.” The slight edge in Root’s voice told Shaw she wasn’t lying through her teeth for once.

“It’s a bit of a long haul. Take a few days and we’ll have to stop and refuel at least once.”

The Ore Colonies were just far enough away from the Central Systems to be fairly lax in security, but close enough that most inhabitants were Interplanetary Republic citizens and things considered civilized amenities (like fuel stations that took credits) were readily available. Any of the Central Systems would be dangerous for a wanted fugitive like Root, but the Hub Planets, the six most developed planets right in the middle that made up the beating heart of the Republic, were by far the most heavily surveilled.

“That’s fine.”

It didn’t sound like it was fine, but Root wasn’t going to find a better ship out this far.

The Indigo Five was built to be fast and maneuverable, but she couldn’t hold up to extensive terminal travel the way larger, more armored vessels did, so Shaw always paused between blinks to run a basic diagnostic, make sure she hadn’t been damaged. It drove Reese nuts because he’d rather blow right through multiple terminals and worry about the consequences later, but she was Shaw’s ship now and Shaw was very firm on this rule.

“I’ll get us off this rock and headed to the terminal then,” Shaw said, turning away. Root’s smile wasn’t quite as confident as Shaw was used to seeing and it was setting off alarm bells in her head. This whole situation reeked of trouble. “You know where the bunks are at?”

“Why? Are you inviting me back to yours?” Root trailed along behind her.

“No. In fact, you get the one furthest away from me.” She paused by Paradox again, annoyed as always that Root hadn’t named it ‘the Paradox’. Not having an article in front of the name made it sound like she thought of it as a pet or something, which maybe she did. She was a bit weird like that.

“I get a bunk?”

Shaw looked back to catch a confused expression on Root’s face that quickly vanished.

“You’re a paying passenger even if I’m not crazy about it. Where did you think you’d sleep? In that heap?” She gestured at Root’s ship with her thumb.

Root shrugged. “Guess I didn’t really think about that.”

Shaw could hear the lie. Root had actually expected she’d be sleeping in her tiny ship. Shaw might not have been a gracious host, but they had to maintain the ship’s reputation.

Did Root live in that thing?

“Well, I won’t stop you, but the bunks are probably more comfortable.”

Root hesitated and then brushed past her to climb back up on Paradox. She vanished into the cockpit and there were some muffled thumping noises before a small, battered bag came sailing out of the ship. Shaw caught it out of instinct, surprised by how light it was.

“Wanna go for a ride?” Root had reappeared from within the cockpit and was sitting on the side of Paradox, her feet kicking in space, and one eyebrow raised suggestively.

The thing was, Root was really damn hot, and the sex had been great (even if she’d been tasered and robbed after the first time but whatever these things happened sometimes), but that was one thing at some cheap hostel; this was Shaw’s ship. Banging Root on her ship sounded like it could get complicated, and Shaw was very much against complications.

“This all you got?” Shaw asked, hefting the small bag and ignoring the question. Come to think of it, even though Root’s itemized list had been fairly long it had all been small items or stuff that shouldn’t have been counted anyway.

Root slid down to the floor. “I travel light.” She took the bag back immediately as if to cut off any more questions.

Well, it was her business, Shaw figured, and it wasn’t like she had a lot of material possessions herself anyway.

“Let’s go then.”

She showed Root into the first empty crew cabin they came to (conveniently all the way at the other end of the hall from hers) and left her sitting on her bunk, staring around her temporary room like it was an alien planet.

* * *

 

“Melior? Is that a good idea?”

Shaw didn’t bother to roll her eyes at what had to have been the dumbest question Reese had asked all day.

“Of course it isn’t. When has anything involving Root ever been a good idea?” She reached under the console to unlock the controls and flipped on the main engine power. The Indigo Five woke up under her feet, humming to life.

“She say why she wanted to go to the one place in the universe it’d be easiest for Galactic Enforcement to hunt her down?”

“No. Probably more worried about the ISA hunting her down than Enforcement, but really what we’re talking about here is Samaritan. And that thing has eyes and ears all over Melior.”

As the private armed force of the Interplanetary Council, the Interplanetary Security Activity were supposed to be in charge of Samaritan, but Shaw was fairly certain the AI was the one actually pulling the strings these days. Back when she’d worked for the ISA, they’d had a different AI feeding them the dirty little secrets of the galaxy, a supposedly less megalomaniacal one. The Machine was hiding as much as the rest of them were these days, though, maybe more. Shaw wasn’t sure why it’d want to send its little pet hacker into certain danger, but then she’d never been completely sure why it did half the things it did.

“What about us?” Reese asked, playing with a switch on the console. “Thought we were trying to avoid trouble.”

Shaw leaned over and smacked his hand away. Reese could fly pretty well (even if he did have a tendency to smash into other ships), but she was the pilot here and there were rules on her bridge. The most important rule was no touching the damn controls.

“Eh, I mean Samaritan doesn’t know who we are, so as long as we don’t do anything spectacularly dumb we should be fine for a short trip.” And she really could use a night in a luxury hotel. Maybe order in some gourmet food, have a long, hot bath, find a quick hook-up from a nearby bar, sleep in a real bed. It’d be like a vacation.

“Her credit check out?” Reese asked as Shaw took the Indigo Five up off the dock, slow and easy. The landing gear retracted with a few dull thuds as they gained some height.

“Seems to. Guess robbing a bank will do that.”

“Doesn’t it strike you as weird that the Machine would have her pull some stunt that brings all this attention on her and then send her right into enemy territory while everyone’s on high alert?”

“Is there anything about Root and the Machine that  _isn’t_ weird?” There was no baseline for normal in this scenario.

“Just wondering what it’s thinking.” Reese looked up at the monitor near the top of the wall. The screen showed nothing but static.

“No way we’re finding out. Even before all this mess it was never exactly chatty.”

They were high above the planet’s surface now, headed up on a path to break through the atmosphere and out into space. They hadn’t ventured out from the main planet in this system so they were only about an hour away from the terminal. Shaw dialed in a blink request and waited for authorization.

“Not too bad. Only a twenty minute wait from when we get to the terminal.” Back in the Central Systems a wait time of several hours wasn’t unusual unless you could pay an exorbitant fee to upgrade your priority.

“What’d you end up doing with that monster cat?” Shaw asked, sitting back in the pilot chair and enjoying the rumbling of the ship around her. She’d punched in a pretty direct route for them and, while she couldn’t just leave the bridge, she didn’t need her hands on the controls at all times.

“Oh. About that.” Reese winced. “It, uh, sort of vanished.”

“Maybe we’ll get lucky and it escaped onto the planet.” Root would no doubt insist they go back for it if that were the case. Damn thing was probably the only companion she had other than the Machine’s voice in her head.

“Where’s its owner wandered off to?” Reese looked back over his shoulder as if expecting Root to appear from the shadows with a stun gun at any second.

“Gave her a cabin, though she’s probably up to no good somewhere else by now.” She’d like to think that the Machine would keep Root in check on their ship since they technically worked for it, too, but she wasn’t betting on it. “You volunteering to go keep an eye on her?”

“It’s my turn to make dinner,” Reese said, hurriedly. “I think that takes priority.”

“Wuss.”

“Hey, you’re the one who let her on board.”

“Let? I’m not sure let is the right word here. And you were all ‘oh no we can’t throw her out an airlock because money’.”

The Indigo Five pulled clear of the planet’s atmosphere and sailed out into open space. Shaw momentarily forgot her annoyance as the quiet of the universe wrapped around their little ship. Even with all the internal whirrings and hums of the ship she could feel the silence outside pressing in on them. She’d never get tired of being out here.

“Fine, go make food. I’ll hunt her down after we hit the terminal.”

Reese escaped gratefully and left Shaw alone to enjoy the view out the front window as the ship headed towards the terminal. A few minutes later, Bear wandered in and flopped down on the floor next to her with a heavy doggy sigh. Apparently he wasn’t comfortable with their new guests either.

“Know how you feel, buddy.” She scratched him behind the ears. “At least we’re off that garbage heap of a planet.”

She folded her arms behind her head and leaned back to enjoy the ride.

* * *

 

“What the hell are you doing in here?”

Root turned around at the sound of Shaw’s voice, almost dropping the roll of medical tape she’d been holding. The medical bay was dark around her, lit only by emergency lights since she hadn’t been able to figure out where the light controls were.

“I thought you were a medic, Shaw. Should be pretty obvious what I’m doing.” She turned back to taping the gauze over the gash on her arm. She’d cut it on a sharp rock when the Local Enforcement agents had slammed her into the ground during her arrest, and even though it’d stopped bleeding ages ago her shirt kept rubbing against it.

At least the cut had been on her right arm and therefore hadn’t interfered with the black circuits tattooed up and down her left. The tattoo had started out as a fairly small design, a solid band around her forearm just below the elbow with a few circuits branching off. She’d added to it over the years until the circuits stretched down to her wrist and up to her shoulder.

“You disinfect that?” Shaw’s voice was closer now and Root glanced up to see her peering at the mostly-covered cut.

She smiled a little. “Worried about me, Shaw?” If she’d known Shaw was going to drop in on her she’d have taken her shirt off rather than rolled up the sleeve.

Regrettably, Shaw was also still wearing a shirt, but she’d taken off her heavy duster jacket and was only wearing a tank top now. Root took a moment to appreciate the extra bare skin of Shaw’s shoulders and neck. She could vividly remember what it felt like to bite down on Shaw’s neck, scrape her teeth along her throat. Was it the right time to try and pick up where they’d left off in the jail cell?

Shaw ignored her and opened a drawer in one of the cabinets near the sink. She tossed a metal tube of some type of medical gel down on the table next to Root. “Should clean the whole area, too, but suit yourself. Don’t blame me if your arm rots off.”

Root peeled away the mess she’d been making of the bandages and went over to the sink to wash the dirt off her arm. A lot of it had gotten into the cut, so maybe Shaw had a point.

“Then I’d get a cool arm like yours. We could match.”

Shaw scowled. “Didn’t have my arm cut off for fun like all these rich kids do these days.”

It was more than Root had ever heard her say about the matter. She knew, due to being nosy and reading Shaw’s files from her time working for the ISA, that Shaw’s arm had gotten crushed during a military operation–an operation that had claimed the lives of everyone else on her team–and that she’d finished the mission by herself despite her mangled limb. The ISA had paid for her first biometal arm replacement, and then she’d gotten a significant upgrade from her new employer.

It hadn’t occurred to her that Shaw would have a strong opinion on how bionic prostheses were being sold as status symbols and amusements now, their prices ratcheted up high above what most people who actually needed them could afford. It didn’t sound like something Shaw would care about one way or the other, but then she had trained to be a medic at one time. Perhaps that was why.

Root didn’t comment, and instead concentrated on cleaning her arm, making a face at how dirty the water was that ran off. It’d been too long since she’d been able to take care of any cleaning beyond basic hygiene.

When she went back to get the tube of antibiotic gel, Shaw picked it up before she could.

“Sit.” Shaw gestured at a chair.

“What’d I do to merit special treatment?”

“Paid me a small fortune. If you die from an infection it’ll give me a bad rep.”

Shaw uncapped the tube and pulled a box of cotton swabs from a drawer. She tsked a little when she examined the cut and then dabbed at it with a gel-covered swab.

“Maybe I should get myself a personal field medic,” Root said, trying to cover her wince. The damn gel was cold and stung like hell. “Looking for a new gig, Sameen? The pay is crap, but the benefits….”

She smirked and Shaw rolled her eyes like she’d known she would

“What do you usually do when you get all banged up out in the field?” Shaw asked as she sorted through the bandage material Root had left strewn across the table.

“Sometimes there’s not much I  _can_  do.” The Machine had found her help in a few more critical situations. It wasn’t that she didn’t know any basic first aid, but there often wasn’t time for it and unless it was life-threatening she’d forget to take care of it without the Machine reminding her. And that hadn’t been an option lately.

“Should look into getting a med kit to carry around. Might save your life one day.” Shaw finished taping the bandage in place and started tidying away the supplies.

Root chose to remain silent, watching as Shaw cleaned up and washed her hands. She’d like to think Shaw would spare a thought for her if she turned up dead. After all, Shaw had taken care of her that night she’d shown up at her hostel door, but there was a lot about that incident that she couldn’t remember.

“Reese is making dinner. Should be ready soon, but, uh, we’re docked at the terminal and scheduled to blink in about an hour. You get blink sick?”

“Not exactly.” She hated blinking.

“Well, try to not exactly throw up on my ship, okay?”

Root had scoped out the ship’s layout already but hadn’t had time for more than a passing glance at anything yet. It wasn’t the first time she’d been on the Indigo Five, but last time she hadn’t exactly been in a position to explore the ship.

But now she had time to take in her surroundings while she followed Shaw through the corridors. The halls themselves were all roughly hexagonal with metal grated walkways for floors under which ran wires and pipes. There were small lights near the top and bottom of the halls that illuminated the walkways just enough to prevent tripping but not much more. Most rooms off the halls had heavy doors which could be used to seal off sections of the ship in case of a fire or breach or other disaster.

They could also be used to seal a person in somewhere against their will, as Root well knew. She’d once spent a day locked in a small storage bay while Reese and Shaw had renovated the little cell in the stern of the ship. She wondered if the cell was still functional these days.

She tried to get a sense of where everything was as she walked. The medical bay was at the top of the ship near the back, not too far from the hanger where Paradox was currently staying, and the crew cabins were down a metal flight of stairs and all the way down the corridor to the front of the ship. About halfway to the cabins, Shaw took a left through a door that led to the galley.

John Reese eyed her with the pained expression of someone who’d been on the wrong end of her taser and was wondering when they were going to end up there again. He was hovering over some sort of pot on the electric stove panel that was billowing steam up into a vent.

“I thought you were making dinner.” Shaw grabbed the long-handled spoon John had been stirring the pot with and poked at the contents with distaste. “This is hot water, not dinner.”

“Well, gee, Shaw, maybe if we actually had anything in the way of food supplies left I could make something more substantial. Unless you’d rather cook tonight?”

“Ugh. We can restock a bit on the way to Melior. Then get the good stuff once we’re back on the Hub.” She stopped tormenting John and took a seat at the table. “You gonna stand there all day?”

Root had been hovering in the doorway, debating if she should sneak out to explore the ship more or stay and watch the weirdly sibling-like squabble unfolding before her, but now that Shaw’s attention was back on her it’d be hard to vanish. She settled herself on a chair across the table from Shaw, making sure to bump her leg a few times in the process.

“So, Root,” John started, unaware of the death glares Shaw was directing at her. “What’s back on Melior that’s so important you’d risk having the ISA find you?”

That was a great question, one that Root wished she knew the answer to. She trusted the Machine, of course, without question, but the idea of falling into the ISA’s hands again was…unsettling. Especially since Samaritan guided their movements now. She didn’t think she’d be able to escape a second time and she knew she couldn’t survive that kind of damage again.

“She has some errands for me to run.”

“What sort of errands?” Shaw was holding a spoon delicately between the fingers of her left hand, which Root found a bit odd since she knew Shaw was right-handed. She ran her eyes over the length of Shaw’s biometal arm, wondering how often Shaw forced herself to do things like this with it as practice. The cheap spoons in the galley would easily bend if she applied even a fraction of the force she was capable of and yet she twirled it between her fingers with ease.

“Oh, nothing worth worrying about.”

Shaw bristled, but her grip on the spoon didn’t tighten even a fraction. “Really wasn’t worried.”

The contents of the pot John had been hovering over turned out to be some type of broth that had just enough flavor to disqualify it as water, but not much more than that. It was hot, though, and no one was trying to kill her while she ate it which made it one of the better meals she’d had in awhile.

Shaw may have complained loudly about the quality of the food, but she still put away several helpings of it, while John ate much more slowly and did a poor job attempting to be subtle about keeping an eye on her.

If the two of them stayed this suspicious, it was going to be a long week.

“What do you kids do for fun around here?” she asked to break the slightly awkward silence.

John opened his mouth to answer but Shaw cut him off. “We don’t.”

Root made sure Shaw was looking at her before she batted her eyelashes. “What? No fun at all? Not even a little?” She ran her foot up the inside of Shaw’s calf, making her twitch in her seat. “Well, I’m sure we can find  _something_ …fun to pass the time.”

John choked on his soup a bit and had to turn to the side to have a coughing fit. Shaw fumed visibly and Root’s eyes travelled back to the spoon she still held loosely in her left hand. Even with Root riling her up she hadn’t tightened her grip even a tiny bit. Bionics were damn hard to adjust to and the fact Shaw had that degree of control was impressive…and a bit hot.

Shaw followed her gaze to the spoon and set it down on the table with a frown before turning back to her food.

Root let the meal lapse back into silence after that, unsure how much she could push them without running the risk of getting dumped on the next planet they came across. She was content to wait for a more opportune moment to try and get Shaw to pick up where they’d left off on the jail cell. She still got a little thrill every time she remembered how Shaw’s left hand had felt on her skin, digging into her ribcage only just short of doing real damage. The bruise she’d left there earlier ached pleasantly whenever Root brushed it.

She’d been serious when she’d told Shaw she didn’t have a bionics kink. It wasn’t Shaw’s arm that she found so damn enticing (well, not  _only_  her arm), it was the fact that Sameen Shaw could break her in half with only the slightest of efforts but chose not to. There was something intoxicating about putting herself at Shaw’s mercy, knowing that she  _could_  kill her, and then, later, walking away with the knowledge that she hadn’t.

Root had just reached the bottom of her bowl when a loud beeping sounded over the ship’s intercom.

“That’s us,” Shaw said, getting up. “We’re next through the terminal.” She hurried out of the room, no doubt headed back to the bridge.

“Where does this go?” Root motioned at her empty dish. She was still starving and definitely could have gone for a second helping, but if they were about to blink she needed to leave.

“Just leave it,” Reese said absentmindedly. He had a network tablet next to his bowl and was scrolling idly through some news channel on it.

Root took him at his word and left as quickly as she could without being too obvious in her haste. She thought about going back to the tiny cabin that Shaw had insisted she take, but being on Paradox sounded more appealing right now.

When she dropped into the cockpit, she found that Mortimer had returned on his own and was curled up in the small crawlspace behind the seats in the nest of blankets she slept in. The little monitor on the wall next to him was playing a video of some birds hopping around chirping at each other and Mortimer was watching in rapt fascination.

The whole scene made Root feel a little better. The Machine might not be able to talk much lately, but She still looked out for all of them in tiny ways. Even if that was just putting on a video for her cat.

Mortimer glared indignantly when she rearranged the blankets so she could lie down, and then let out a resigned sigh and curled up back next to her.

* * *

 

“Back to civilization at last,” Shaw said when Reese joined her on the bridge. She was beyond ready to get out of this corner of the galaxy.

“How long do you think we can risk staying this time?” He took the co-pilot seat and looked at the small display on the console that was running through all the pre-blink checks.

“Long enough for a night on the town at least.” Hopefully the Machine didn’t send them a damn number on Melior this time. That never ended well. “I’ve got a feeling we’re going to have to give Root a lift off that place when she’s done with…whatever it is.”

“What? Why?”

“We’ve got her ship parked in our hanger. I mean I guess she could be planning to fly it in herself after we clear the terminal, but that would defeat the purpose of using our ship as camouflage.”

The Indigo Five was hovering in front of the terminal now: three enormous metal anchors connected by wispy energy beams to form a triangular opening. It looked like if they just flew forward through the terminal they’d come right out the other side, but of course that wasn’t how it worked.

“You knew we’d have to wait for her and you didn’t pitch a fit?” Reese grimaced. “You’re getting soft.”

Shaw couldn’t find anything unimportant enough to throw at him so she fixed him with a cold stare instead. “The Machine would rope us into it somehow.”

“Guess so.”

The Indigo Five was almost in the terminal now and Shaw flipped the switch on the console to do the last minute preps. The front window of the ship became noticeably more opaque and the humming from below grew louder as the x-ray shielding came online.

“Time to get out of here.” Shaw punched the button to release control of the ship to the terminal.

She wasn’t sure how to describe what blinking felt like. There was definitely the weird distortion of the bridge around them for a second, as if everything was getting larger but simultaneously moving away, and the swoop in her stomach, and then everything felt…different. She didn’t have words for it.

Out the front window the vastness of space had transformed into a soft white glow in front of them. They couldn’t see stars or anything else while travelling between terminals and other than the stressed rumblings of the ship suddenly having to put up with an incredible amount of pressure there was no way to tell they were actually moving. A lot of people refused to look outside while ships were in blink because the illusion of standing still while actually moving unbelievably fast was disconcerting. Shaw rather enjoyed it.

“Suppose we should get some shut eye while we can,” Reese said after a few minutes of silently contemplating the soft glow.

“Better lock your door tonight,” Shaw warned as they got up and stretched. “Wouldn’t put it past her to try and smother us in our sleep.”

“Don’t think I’m the one whose door she’ll be knocking on tonight.”

Shaw did hit him then, but it was only with her right arm.


	3. Overload

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> content warning: mild dismemberment of a bad guy but he probably had it coming

Shaw woke up only a few hours after she'd stretched out in her bunk. Time of day was meaningless out in space, especially when traveling between planets that had completely different night and day cycles, but they made some effort to stay on a schedule for the sake of sanity. And yet she'd woken up far too early and for no good reason that she could discern.

She stayed still for a few moments, tuning out the familiar ship sounds (and Bear's doggy snores) to listen for any disturbances, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. Which, it occurred to her, was likely the problem. She'd been tense falling asleep, convinced Root was likely to show up at any moment and try to break into her bunk (though whether it would be to incapacitate her or pick up where they'd left off in that jail cell Shaw was unsure. She was also unsure what she'd do if it were the latter).

Eventually she got up--careful not to disturb Bear--and opened her door so she could peer out into the passageway.

Everything was still.

On some whim she didn't choose to examine too closely, she went down to the bunk she'd given Root earlier. The door was open and the room looked untouched, spare sheets still folded on the bed. The only thing out of place was the little bag Root had brought here with her, sitting on the mattress.

Shaw debated the ethics of rummaging through the possessions of someone who was technically a paying customer for about three seconds before emptying the bag’s contents onto the mattress.

There wasn't much in it: a change of clothes, a couple folded pieces of paper, a toothbrush, and a comb. She unfolded one of the pieces of paper, but it was covered in scribbles that didn't make a lot of sense. It was possibly some form of pseudocode, but, given that this was Root, it was just as likely weird love poetry for the Machine. The third piece of paper she unfolded had the words ‘Hi, sweetie!’ written on it in what appeared to be red lipstick.

The i’s were both hearts.

Shaw almost crumpled the paper up before realizing that would be a dead giveaway that she'd seen it. Instead, she carefully refolded it and put everything back in Root's bag exactly as she'd found it.

The worst part was she couldn't even tell Root how thoroughly unamused she was. She settled for rolling her eyes in disgust at the bag.

Despite the fact she'd have heard anyone approaching on the metal grate flooring of the passageway, she still glanced up and down the hall. If Root wasn't here, where was she? Reese was supposed to be on watch up on the bridge, but maybe she'd gotten to him? Not much she could do while the ship was in blink though.

Shaw went back to her bunk and used the wall panel to call up to the bridge.

“Reese, you good?”

“Yeah, why? What'd Root do now?”

“Nothing? That I know of, anyway. Not in her bunk. You see her on any of the cameras?”

“Haven't seen anything of note other than your little trip to her bunk just now.”

Shaw frowned at the panel. Asshole.

“Wonder where she went then. Maybe back to her ship?”

“Could be. The top hatch on her ship is shut so I can't see in. Is there a problem?”

“Only wanted to make sure she hadn’t tased you and commandeered the ship.”

“Not yet. You should get some sleep while you have time. Or get whatever it is you went to Root's bunk to…”

Shaw hung up on him.

She debated going and checking Paradox to see if Root had slunk back off to sleep there, but decided she didn't really care enough (and didn't want to give Reese any more ammunition). If Root thought she was too good for the Indigo Five’s bunks, that was her issue.

She paused with her hand on the bolt of her door, wondering if she should lock it. She shook her head and threw the lock. Of course she should, why wouldn't she lock it?

She kept listening for the sound of footsteps up until she fell asleep.

* * *

 

Shaw eyed Paradox doubtfully. “This is never going to work.”

“You have a better idea?” Reese asked.

“Unfortunately, no.”

They'd come out of blink a few hours ago and rather than immediately heading right to the next terminal, they'd decided to stop on the nearest planet to grab some supplies. Shaw was beyond done with the sad excuse for broth that they were down to.

The problem was the nearest planet didn't have any surface ports large enough for the Indigo Five and had some strict rules about flying any types of crafts in the atmosphere.

The preferred method of getting to the planet's surface was to park your ship in the space dock and take an ‘environmentally friendly’ shuttle down to the surface. Even under normal circumstances Shaw wouldn't have liked having to rely on a third party to get back to her ship, but with Samaritan’s most wanted space hacker nerd on board she wasn't even willing to consider the shuttle option.

And then Root had to go and suggest they take Paradox down to the surface because: “She's a stealth ship, Shaw. She's made for this kind of thing.”

And, yes, Root was completely correct about that, but Shaw still didn't like the idea. Not only did it leave them at Root's mercy to get back, but Paradox looked like a death trap.

“I thought you were supposed to be staying with the ship?” Shaw asked Reese as they listened to the muffled crashes of Root ‘tidying up’ Paradox’s cockpit.

“I was going to, but….” Reese looked uncomfortable. He glanced around and his voice dropped to a whisper. “It's following me, Shaw. I think it's stalking me like its prey.”

Shaw stared blankly at him. Had he finally gone insane from lack of proper nutrition? “What's stalking you?”

“Her attack cat.” He looked very agitated. “I was cleaning the galley this morning and I heard a noise and I turned around and it was just...there. Watching me.”

“It's just a cat, Reese.” A big cat, to be sure, but still.

“That animal has it out for me. I'm not staying here alone with it.”

“I'm sure Bear will protect you from the scary fuzzball.”

“Bear’s scared of it, too!”

“Think we're all set,” Root called from above. Her head popped out the top of the open cockpit. Her hair was still damp from the shower Shaw had insisted she take earlier. Honestly it'd looked like she'd been through a dust storm.

"Ready to get out of here?” Root noticed Reese's presence and raised a eyebrow. “Bringing a chaperone, Shaw?”

“He's terrified of your demon cat.”

Reese elbowed her, his face twisted into a sulk.

Root looked deeply amused and that, more than anything Reese had said, made Shaw wonder if maybe the cat really did have it in for him.

“Well, get in, you two. Not really room for three in here so someone gets to sit in the back crawl space.”

“Not it,” Shaw said immediately.

Root looked back over her shoulder into Paradox. “As much as I like the idea of you sitting right behind me, I'm not sure the big lug will actually fit all the way in the back.”

Shaw didn't quite believe her until she dropped down into Paradox and got a look for herself.

“I've seen garbage dumps cleaner than this place.”

Root was already settled down in the pilot's seat and smiled without looking up from the console. “Hiding from an evil god isn't as glamorous as it sounds. Don't have much time for spring cleaning.”

Reese was crammed into the second seat behind the pilot's chair, his legs folded up a ridiculous amount to allow him to fit. Shaw smirked at his discomfort before sliding past his chair into the back.

The rear of the ship was basically a crawl space, just high enough that Shaw could sit up inside of it and long enough for a person to lie down. And judging by the mess of blankets, Root used the space as a bed. Shaw crawled in, making a face at the amount of cat hair layering the blankets.

There was a small monitor on the wall back here. Maybe Root watched tv in bed? There was also a piece of paper stuck to the wall next to the screen. Shaw squinted to examine it in the low light. It looked like a sketch of a cat (though not Mortimer) curled up asleep, quite well drawn, too.

Did Root draw? For some reason Shaw had a hard time imagining that.

The floor of the ship hummed under her as Root got ready to take off, dragging her attention away from the drawing.

“What about the hanger doors?” Reese called over the noise.

“Really not a problem,” Root yelled back.

Shaw rolled her eyes. Either the Machine was meddling again or Root had hacked the Indigo Five’s systems. She’d have a chat with her about that later.

It occurred to her, as she tried to brace herself in the back, that she'd never been in a vehicle Root was piloting before. And if she flew even half as recklessly as she lived her life, Shaw was in for a really rough flight.

Reese half-turned around once they were out in open space. “Doing alright back there?”

Shaw had her back against one wall and her feet braced against the other. “Never better.” Maybe she'd knock Root out and fly them back herself. “We sure they won't be able to pick us up on their radar?”

“No one can see Paradox unless I want them to.” Root sounded very sure of herself.

“You'd better be right about that.”

But it seemed that Root was correct when they landed without incident. Shaw clambered out of the back, her whole body sore from being bounced around by the rather rough landing. Root tried to offer her a hand down from the ship which she ignored, jumping down (mostly) gracefully onto the hard-packed dirt, her long coat billowing around her. She had her favorite gun in a low-slung holster at her hip and had even worn her hat today. She was ready for whatever this stupid planet had to offer.

Which seemed to be heat. It was even hotter here than the last place they'd been and really she should have checked that before coming down. She was going to boil.

Root must have checked (or, more likely, the Machine had told her) because she was wearing a loose, shiny black vest, her pale arms left bare. Of course, even if she was probably cooler in that, her arms were going to get burnt out here. Shaw glanced over the tattoo on her arm; looked like she'd gotten more work done on it since last time she'd seen it. When did she find the time?

Root tugged the hood of her vest up over her hair. “Town is that way.” She pointed off towards a small clump of trees. Shaw guessed she'd landed Paradox on this side of the trees to keep her hidden.

Shaw straightened out her hat brim and squinted against the brightness. “Let's get this over with.”

* * *

 

Root trailed behind Shaw and Reese as they made their way towards the sad excuse for a town that they'd landed near. Her head was still throbbing dully from earlier and the bright sunlight everywhere wasn't helping at all.

“Don't suppose you have any advice for me?” she asked quietly. She didn't get an answer, but she hadn't really expected to. It'd been a long time since the Machine had been able to respond freely to her.

“Root?”

Shaw and Reese were both looking back at her expectantly.

“Yes?”

“Reese just asked if you knew where we should head for supplies?” Shaw looked at her a little oddly.

“You know as much about the place as I do.” Unfortunately not a lie.

“Well, whatever. Town is tiny. Can't be too many options.”

As they got to the edge of town, Root pulled the hood of her vest further down over her face. It wouldn't help much, but anything that made her a little harder to recognize was a bonus right now.

The town was slightly larger than the one on the last planet they'd been to, but still extremely unimpressive. Everything out in the Ore Colonies was kind of a shithole. The streets of the town were narrow tracts of unpaved dirt between the buildings. Everything was built so closely together here that someone could have jumped from one rooftop to the next with barely any effort. It was good for hiding and for losing pursuit (if it came to that), but it still made her feel like she was trapped.

There were messy bunches of power cables strung everywhere to provide electricity to the buildings, the lines humming softly. They looked like a fire hazard to her, but hey she didn't have to live here. What a dump.

“Looks like a supply store down there.” Shaw pointed down the slightly wider road that was probably what passed for a main street here. “And a bar, too. Could use a drink since we're here anyway.”

“I don't want to rush, but…” Something about this place made Root twitchy.

“So don't.” Shaw turned away from her and headed towards the bar with her inconvenient side-kick in tow.

Root looked around, trying to put her finger on why she felt uneasy there, and then gave up and followed them.

The interior of the bar was dark and smelled musty. Root sat cautiously in a chair at the corner table Shaw had gotten for them.

“Why’re you so jumpy?” Shaw was watching her closely.

Reese had gone to get them drinks, so it was just the two of them now.

“Not really sure. Something about this place feels off.”

Shaw looked around and shrugged. “Looks like a typical dive bar in the Ore Colonies to me.”

“It's not that.” She wasn't sure how to explain it. And her headache was getting worse rather than better.

“You okay?” There was almost no inflection in Shaw's question.

“Why, you worried?”

Shaw frowned and looked away across the bar. “Didn't bother to use the bunk we gave you last night. Maybe you didn't sleep at all. We get into a fight here that could be a problem for me.”

“And how would you know I wasn't sleeping in my bunk?” Root asked with a smile, headache momentarily forgotten. She wondered if Shaw had found the note she'd left for her.

“I make it my business to know what goes on in my ship.”

Reese returned with drinks for them and Root sighed to herself, exasperated that he'd interrupted right when things might have been getting interesting again.

“You think you can manage getting supplies on your own?” Shaw asked Reese as he sat back down.

“Why? You have a hot date, Shaw?”

Root held back a smirk. Score one for the big lug.

“Root thinks there's something off about this place, and I'm inclined to be overly cautious and say we get out of here asap.”

“So you two get to enjoy a drink while I have to go out in the heat and shop?”

“Hey, you were supposed to stay on the ship, Mr. I'm so scared of kitty cats.”

Root lost track of the rest of their bickering as her headache flared up again. It was almost like there was some irritating noise that she couldn't quite hear that was drilling into her eardrum.

“Seriously, are you okay?”

Root blinked back to the present to find Reese gone and Shaw watching her.

“Never been better.”

“Good, because I think we're about to have trouble.”

Root followed Shaw's gaze to the group of men at the bar who were whispering to each other and glancing over at them.

“Bounty hunters,” Root guessed. Samaritan might not be able to recognize her, but humans could and her face was plastered all over the wanted boards after the bank incident.

“Could be. Let's move this outside where there's more room to...too late.”

Two more men had come in the front door of the bar, blocking their exit.

“I'm so popular today,” Root said as she pushed her chair back.

“No accounting for taste, I suppose,” Shaw said, getting to her feet. “I'll get the three at the bar, you get the two at the door?”

“My pleasure.”

Neither of the men at the door had drawn a weapon yet, and they weren't ready for the mug of suspicious alcohol that she hurled at them. The first one got her taser in the neck before he recovered, but the second guy managed to land a hit to her ribs. She ducked and backed away, cursing and trying to catch her breath. Whatever was wrong with her head was slowing her down today.

Her opponent used the opportunity to draw his gun which left Root with no choice but to arm herself as well. She grabbed the little surprise she'd armed herself with before coming down and flicked her wrist. A segmented blade folded out from the hilt in her hand, the metal pieces clicking as they snapped into place to form a long, razor sharp sword, the blade shiny with a rainbow iridescence reminiscent of an oil slick.

The man with the gun gaped at it in confusion for a long moment which was all she needed to disarm him. Both his weapon and his actual arm.

The bar got silent except for the sound of the man screaming as he fell to the floor.

“Let's go.” Shaw was there suddenly, shoving her towards the door.

The street outside was bright and she could almost smell the electricity humming through the wires that crackled above them: sharp and slightly metallic.

There was a semi-circle of men waiting for them in the narrow street.

“Shit.” Shaw had already moved to stand half in front of her, a nice gesture though unneeded. “Any ideas?”

“You take the three on the left?” Root suggested with a smile. They had shit odds now since these guys already had their guns out, but she knew better than to underestimate Shaw. Her arm wasn't bullet proof, but it could definitely stop a bullet if needed. She'd just have to repair it later.

The power lines above them exploded in a shower of sparks, and the men fell back, cursing as they moved to a safe distance. The power lines flared again, humming threateningly and Root had a suspicion as to what was going on now.

“Run,” she whispered to Shaw and shoved her down the street towards the exit to town closest to her ship.

Shaw didn't argue and they both took off down the street, sparks exploding on either side of them as they ran.

_Mine._

Root almost stumbled at the voice in her ear. It was so good to hear Her voice again that she could feel her hands shaking in relief even as they ran.

“Yes, yours,” she agreed quietly.

She flicked her wrist to make her sword fold itself back up into its hilt and shoved it in the waistband of her pants. She hated putting it away without wiping down the blade; she'd have to take the whole thing apart to clean it later.

“This way.” Shaw grabbed her arm, the fingers of her bionic hand wrapping around her wrist with just the slightest hint of pressure. Even running from the bad guys, Shaw was still in perfect control.

They burst out of the narrow alleys into the open ground beyond the town and didn't slow down until they reached Paradox and scrambled back into the cockpit.

“Reese is on his way.” Shaw didn't sound even slightly winded, but she did drop into the passenger's seat.

Root moved to the front and made sure the cloaking device was still intact. It had been seconds ago, but with all the oddities in this place she was paranoid.

Seconds ticked by as they waited for Reese, and Root felt some of the adrenaline from the fight fade. The Machine had gone silent again and Root couldn't help but worry that She'd put herself at risk for them.

“Was that the Machine back there?” Shaw asked as if she could hear her thoughts.

“Yes. She usually won’t interfere directly like that, but I guess She was worried.”

“Good thing. Probably could have taken them, but it would have hurt.” Root heard her shift around in her seat. "What the hell was that thing you cut that guys arm off with?"

"My space sword, obviously." What a silly question.

Shaw groaned.

Root turned back around to regard her. Shaw was all sweaty from the heat of the planet and their hasty retreat, her hair a disheveled mess now that she'd taken her hat off. It was just the two of them now in her little ship--a scenario she'd definitely imagined before--and they had nothing to do til Reese got back, so….

She moved around the pilot's chair to lean over Shaw in the cramped space.

“We're going to have to make a quick getaway, sweetie. Wanna check my engines before take off?” Not her best line, but she was improvising here.

“We've got a planet full of bounty hunters after us. Are you serious?”

But she could see Shaw looking her over despite herself. She leaned further down so her face was as close to Shaw's as it could get without touching.

“Maybe, maybe not. Won't it be fun to find out?”

Shaw licked her lips and was about to say something when there was a thud and the ship shook a little.

“Ow!” Reese had apparently found the cloaked ship.

Root retreated to a respectful distance and Shaw watched her go without comment.

“Let's get out of here,” Reese said as he dropped into the cockpit. Shaw vacated his seat and headed to the back as Root strapped herself in.

“Can you punch in a blink request for the Indigo Five from this thing?” Shaw yelled from the back as they took off.

“Obviously.” Changing the identity of the ship the request was being sent from was child's play.

She felt much better once they were headed up off the planet towards the dubious safety of open space. No other ships moved to pursue them from the surface and the Indigo Five looked undisturbed. Still, she felt a crawling unease as they docked in the small hanger and waited for it to pressurize.

Shaw climbed out as soon as it was safe, disappearing over the edge before Root and Reese had finished unstrapping themselves. She was already in the pilot's seat setting a course for the terminal when they caught up.

“What's the wait like?” Reese asked.

“Thirty minutes.” Shaw didn't sound pleased. “Haven't seen any signs of pursuit but I'd rather not wait around to find out.”

“They shouldn't have been able to track Paradox back to the ship so they have no way of knowing where we went.” Root rested her hands on the back of Shaw's chair and leaned forward over her shoulder to get a look at the little display on the console. “There wasn't much in the way of cameras on the surface so hopefully you two didn't get flagged."

The Indigo Five was headed full speed away now.

“And if we did?” Reese scowled at her as he took the copilot’s chair.

“She'll protect you.” She thought about the Machine overloading the power boxes on the planet to help her get away. “She always does.”

“Was it responsible for the fireworks back there?”

John must have seen them, too, in whatever part of town he'd been in.

“Well, they didn't blow up on their own, Lurch.”

The terminal was within view now, though they were headed towards the small space port nearby. Most terminals had at least some small place for ships to dock at while waiting for their turn. Back in the Central Systems the ports were fully equipped with restaurants, hotels, and shops for those long waits.

“Uh, that's weird.” Shaw glanced back and then frowned when she realized how much Root was leaning over her chair. “We just got authorization to be the next ship through the terminal.”

Root smiled. “I told you, She takes care of us.”

“That's not going to make Samaritan suspicious?”

“She wouldn't have done it if it would.” They were coming up on the terminal fast now. “I need to go check something on Paradox.”

Reese stood up to block her retreat. “Not until we get some answers. Bank robberies, bounties, exploding power lines, the trip to Melior. You're not telling us everything.”

He would choose now to be a pain in her ass. “Let me by.” She didn't think tasing him would let her slip away unnoticed, but her hand was still aching to go for her taser.

“Just tell us what you got us into.”

Shaw hadn't said anything behind her, probably busy with getting the ship ready. Root heard the ship's shield drive kick in and the engines power up. Shit.

“John. Let me past. I'll explain later.”

“No, you'll explain now. We almost died back there.”

“Will you two knock it off?” Shaw complained. “We're gonna be in blink for the next twelve hours. Fight later.”

Root glanced back to see the terminal directly ahead of them. She tried to dart past Reese but his obnoxiously large frame was blocking the entire small passage.

“John….” She let her voice carry a threat she wasn't sure how to back up. The Machine whispered a warning to her, and for once hearing Her voice wasn't a relief. She was out of time.

“Here we go,” Shaw said.

The entire bridge distorted and warped as they entered blink and a horrible, crawling wrongness branched out from her right ear through her skull. She thought she heard Reese say something but she couldn't understand. Black spots flashed across her vision and the last thing she saw before she lost consciousness was Reese looking concerned.

Too little, too late, she thought as she passed out.


	4. Automaton

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, so I haven't updated this in forever, but this chapter was about 80% done for over half a year, so I just took some time and finished it up. Not sure when I'm going to write more, but I'm not abandoning it either.
> 
> If you've read the zombie au I'm in the middle of writing you'll recognize some similar plot elements. They were in this first and I stole them for my other au. Oops. They have different plot implications though so whatever.

Root cautiously opened her eyes a tiny crack and then groaned and shut them again immediately. Wherever she was, it was too bright for her throbbing head.

At least she was somewhere comfortable--a bed, if she guessed correctly. It was surprisingly soft and smelled a little familiar, almost like….

Root opened one eye again just enough to confirm her suspicions and was unable to stop the pleased smile that formed on her lips. Her smile widened when she took in what was going on in the rest of the room.

In the narrow area between the bed and the far cabin wall, Shaw was standing in a fighting stance, Root's sword in one hand. She clearly didn't have much training with swords specifically, but she was making up for it in enthusiasm. Mostly she seemed to be interested in spinning the sword around so the blade folded back up on itself and then clicked back out and snapped into place. Her eyes were lit up in almost childlike glee.

Root swore she heard her make a ‘whoosh’ noise under her breath.

“Enjoying yourself?”

Shaw spun around. She looked down at the sword in her hand and then at Root and quickly flicked her wrist so the sword folded back up. She tossed it on the bed next to Root.

“Your sword is lame.”

“Which is why you were trying it out. To see how lame it was.” She tried to sit up and was overcome by a wave of nausea and pain. She felt heavy and sluggish, almost like she'd been drugged, and her head was still throbbing, way more than it usually was after blink. But having Shaw realize that wasn't the best idea, so….

“If I'd known getting a bit lightheaded was all it took to end up in your bunk…”

“You'd what? Have passed out sooner?” Shaw didn't sound impressed or amused.

“It worked, didn't it?”

Shaw frowned, clearly not convinced. “Just what the hell is that thing in your head? Biometal implants don't make people collapse like that in blink.”

It was unfortunate that she'd put the pieces together like that. Root had been hoping to find a good lie that didn't implicate her implant. Shaw’s cleverness was incredibly attractive, but at the moment it was damned inconvenient.

“It's nothing for you to worry about.”

Shaw pressed her lips together and leaned down as if to examine her ear. Root's hands flew up to intercept her almost without her meaning to.

“Don't.”

Shaw stopped, uncertain. “If your body is rejecting the implant….”

“It isn't. Please?”

The ‘please’ worked because Shaw backed off, though she didn't look happy about it.

“I'm touched by your concern, but this isn't something I need a medic for.”

“You passed out. Would have cracked your skull if Reese hadn't caught you. And then you were thrashing around even out cold. Had to give you a sedative.”

That explained the grogginess, at least.

“Thank you for that, but I'm fine now.” She managed to get herself upright this time and leaned against the wall next to the bed. “See?”

“Does this happen every time? Is it why you disappeared last time we blinked?”

Not to that degree, but she wasn't willing to share that.

“Blinking is a bit exciting at the moment perhaps.”

“Exciting. Right.”

“It won't be an issue.”

Shaw looked her over for a long minute and then shrugged. “Your problem, not mine. But if it becomes my problem, we're revisiting this.”

Root let out a small relieved breath.

“I've got a good medical scanner on board.” There was an offer in Shaw's voice.

“That won't be necessary.”

Shaw nodded as if she'd already known how Root would answer. “You feel up to staggering down the hall?”

“I think I could manage that.” Going somewhere private and sleeping for a few more hours sounded nice. “How long was I out for?”

“Six hours. Sedative packs a punch.”

Which meant they were already halfway to the next terminal.

“I think I could probably walk down to...my cabin.” Not really hers, but she didn't think she could make it to Paradox.

Shaw waited silently, almost expectantly, for a moment and then shook her head. “Never mind. Sleep here for now.” She turned and left before Root could ask her why.

* * *

 

“Wish we'd had time to fuel up before getting back into the Central Systems.”

Shaw looked out the front window of the Indigo Five at the landing bay on Desmond IV, the planet that was the so-called gateway to the Central Systems. Since it was the only terminal entrance in from the Ore Colonies it got a fair bit of traffic, but not nearly as much as any terminal within the Central Systems. No one wanted to go to the Ore Colonies.

“Who names a planet Desmond anyway?” Shaw grumbled. She wasn't particularly thrilled to be back no matter how luxurious the trappings of civilization sounded after months out in the middle of nowhere.

Reese didn't respond, probably because he knew that she already knew the answer. One of the wealthy moguls who had financed the original expansion into the Ore Colonies had named the previously undesirable planet after himself. It wasn't very habitable and only a handful of cities clustered on one small island inside a habitat bubble were actually settled.

“Root still asleep?” Reese asked.

Neither of them were in a hurry to disembark. Desmond IV tried very hard to emulate the Hub planets, but it fell short. It was just...dull.

“Last I checked. Think she's really wiped out.” There hadn't even been an offer for Shaw to join her in her bunk. Not that she would have taken her up on it or anything, but it was proof that Root was in bad shape.

“Still no idea what caused all that?”

“You know as much as I do. It's got to be connected to that bio implant she's got, which means she's had it modified somehow. Who knows what she did to it.”

Bionics was still a field in its infancy. Companies were racing to release new implants and augmentations without fully understanding what they were doing, and with little to no testing.

“Might be best if she sleeps through this place. Going to be a lot harder for her to hide back in Central.” The fact Reese hadn't brought up getting the truth out of her again spoke to how guilty he felt about her passing out.

“Well, she's been managing until now.” Maybe Shaw could coerce her into telling her how she was pulling that off. Though Root would probably enjoy that too much.

“Guess we shouldn’t put this off. All we need is some supplies and fuel, right?” Reese’s optimism sounded forced.

“If you say ‘what could go wrong’ you're riding back to the Hub on the hull of this ship.”

Even though Root had still been deeply asleep last time she checked, Shaw wasn't surprised to find her waiting for them by the pressure-locked exit. A little disappointed since Reese had made a good point about how dangerous it was for Root (especially right now), but definitely not surprised.

“Short stop only,” Shaw told her. “And try not to pass out again.”

“I'll do my best. I've got an errand to run.”

Shaw almost asked what the errand was, but she didn't want to give Root the opportunity to say something cryptic and look smug.

It was raining outside, an artificial drizzle produced by the habitat bubble they were in. Root tilted her head back and shut her eyes so the rain ran down her upturned face, a small smile on her lips.

Reese raised an eyebrow at Shaw who shrugged. Why should she know what was up with her?

“You gonna stand here all day?” She asked at last.

Root sighed and opened her eyes again. “It's been a while since I've felt rain. Even artificial rain.”

“You're free to stand here like a weirdo while we're gone.”

But Root seemed to be done now and waiting expectantly for them to depart.

When Desmond IV had built its cities, it'd tried to mimic the layered narrow streets and neon lights of cities on Melior, but there hadn't been enough room or population to merit more than a few stories worth of buildings and the daylight from the habitat bubble made the neon look garish and out of place.

They wandered along a road that was a little too wide to boast the same claustrophobic feel as a city like Genesis, passing by groups of pedestrians who ignored them.

Since they were back in the Central Systems, no one would have commented on Shaw's arm had she left it uncovered, but bionics were considered a frivolous luxury here. A dangerous one at that.

“See if you can buy something before we get in a fight this time,” Shaw said, pointing towards a supply store.

Reese looked pained. “Isn't it your turn?”

“I'm going with Root on her errand.”

Reese looked like he was about to protest, but he stopped when she caught his eye. He shrugged and didn't argue.

Surprisingly, Root didn't have anything to say on the matter and stayed quiet even after they’d split off from Reese. Unusual for her, but then she'd been slightly off ever since they'd started this trip. Shaw let the silence stand for a block or two, but her curiosity finally got the best of her.

“There're scanners all over here,” she started. “Probably passed through at least two already. They're shoddy, but they get the job done. How do you keep them from noticing you?”

Root peered at the buildings they were passing as if looking for something.

“Who says they don't notice me?”

“The fact you're still alive says they don't.”

The ghost of a smile passed across Root's lips. “Maybe Samaritan isn't as clever as it thinks it is.”

There was no escaping the smug, cryptic responses for long where Root was concerned.

An automaton came around a corner and clanked down the street in their direction. The synthetic robots were Samaritan’s mobile eyes and ears these days which only increased Shaw's dislike of them. At least out in the Ore Colonies they'd all been so antiquated they were practically useless. The closer they got to the Hub, the more lethal and efficient they were. There'd been some talk about them replacing local Enforcement troops completely.

She saw Root eyeing it warily, but the automaton passed them by without incident. Still, good to see Root was at least a little worried.

“Maybe you shouldn't be running around yet,” Shaw suggested after the third time she saw Root raise a hand to her head and grimace.

“It's just a headache.”

Shaw didn't buy that for even a second, but she let it go.

“Want to tell me where we're headed?” Shaw asked when they turned down a street into a shadier part of the city.

“I need to talk to an acquaintance of mine.”

“You know someone here?” It was odd to imagine Root knowing anyone personally at all.

“Something like that.”

“Have your ever in your life fully answered a question?”

“Yes, right now.” There was that smug look again.

Shaw briefly considered tripping her.

“This way.”

The building Root led her into looked abandoned, walls half-collapsed and dust on the broken furniture, but at the bottom of a flight of decaying stairs was a solid door that opened into a more maintained room. There was only one occupant, sitting at a table in the corner, and she barely looked up when they entered.

“Well, look who it is,” the woman said. “I heard you were dead this time, Veronica.”

Veronica was definitely Shaw's least favorite of Root's aliases.

“Not quite yet.” Root strolled over and took a seat across from the woman. “How's business, Harper?”

“Never a dull moment, even here.” Harper glanced over Shaw. “Who's your pretty, little friend?”

Shaw bristled at that, and Root turned in her seat to grin and raise an eyebrow at her.

“Someone I can vouch for. I trust her completely.”

That was news to Shaw, though Root lied as easily as she breathed so she probably shouldn't read into it.

“Didn't think you trusted anyone. Not healthy in our line of work.” But Harper seemed to have taken Root's word and lost interest in Shaw.

“Our mutual employer said you had something for me?” Root made it a question.

“I may have picked up something for you last time I was on the Hub. I don't suppose you want to tell me exactly what it is I got? I had a little bit of trouble acquiring it and now I have to lay low in this dump for a while.”

“Something Thornhill thought was important, that's all I know.”

Harper looked like she wanted to press the matter, but finally got up and fetched something from a box on a shelf behind her. Whatever it was, it was wrapped up in a cloth.

“If you get caught with this even Thornhill won't be able to protect you.”

“If I get caught at all, no one will.” She reached into her pocket and handed over a credit chip. “The rest of the payment Thornhill promised you.”

Shaw was getting the impression that while Harper worked for the Machine, she didn't know what it was.

“If she your bodyguard then?” Harper motioned at Shaw.

“Hmm.” Root turned again to eye her speculatively. “What do you think, Shaw? Are you my bodyguard?”

“I'm the reason people need bodyguards.” It wasn't the best comeback, but it would do.

“Ohhh, she's tough, too.” Harper looked like she approved. “Probably knows how to use that arm she's hiding.”

Shaw narrowed her eyes. How had Harper spotted her arm? Whoever this woman was, she was a lot more dangerous than she looked.

“Oh, she definitely does,” Root said. She looked a little distracted, but quickly regained focus. “I think our business here is concluded?”

“Seems so, though…” Harper paused. “I don't really like you, but you work for Thornhill, too, so…. Word on the street is that Enforcement is really hot to catch the crazy chick who robbed the galactic bank. They've got some kind of trap set up for her.”

Root didn't look particularly concerned. “Where's the trap?”

“That's the weird part. It's supposedly everywhere.” Harper shrugged. “Makes no sense, I know.”

“Maybe, maybe not.” Root frowned and then stood up. “We'll get out of your hair.”

Some device in the clutter on Harper’s table started beeping loudly.

“Looks like you two have some friends showing up,” Harper said. “Local Enforcement agents incoming.”

“We'll be using the back exit then.” Root looked far too calm.

“What makes you think there's a back exit?”

Root smiled patronizingly and went over to the far end of the room. There was a small wall panel there, the kind that usually controlled things like temperature, and Root hit a couple buttons on it. The section of wall next to her shimmered and changed and there was now a door on what had previously been a blank wall.

“Guess you'd better get out of here, then.” Harper looked a little annoyed, no doubt grumpy about Root finding her secret door so easily.

“You're not coming with us?” Shaw asked, more curious than concerned.

“I can take care of myself.” Harper made a shooing motion. “But not if you two are still here.”

“Suit yourself.” She turned to follow Root through the door.

* * *

 

Harper's escape route turned out to be a long, dark tunnel, full of twists and turns. Root didn't have a clue where they were headed now that the Machine had gone quiet again, but she wasn't about to admit that to Shaw.

At least her headache had finally receded a little down here.

“So what did Harper steal for you?” Shaw asked, breaking the silence.

“Something the Machine thinks I'll need on Melior.”

“You know, if you gave me and Reese even a little bit to go on, maybe we'd be more inclined to help.”

Shaw had a point, but…. “I'm not exactly sure what it is.” She hated having to admit that, but the Machine hadn't had enough time to explain it to her yet. She planned to figure out a bit more once they were safely back on the ship.

“Well that's reassuring.” Shaw looked around the walls of the seemingly endless corridor. “Don't suppose you know where the hell we are either?”

“Not in another Enforcement jail cell.” Though in retrospect that had been more fun.

“If I have to call Reese to come find us, I'm never going to hear the end of it.” Shaw stopped walking. “Maybe we should go back the way we came. Enforcement isn't going to stick around forever.”

There was a crash from further ahead in the tunnel. “Speaking of Enforcement…”

Shaw already had her gun out and aimed down the dark hall. “You know it's them?”

“No, I suppose it could also be more bounty hunters. Or the ISA. Or something worse.”

“Just great.” Shaw glanced back over her shoulder. “We need to move.”

There hadn't been anything that could have been used for cover their entire way here, but Root didn't argue. If Shaw had a plan then that was more than she had.

Shaw’s plan turned out to be backtracking to the last junction in the hallways so they could head down a side hall.

“Wait.” Shaw held up a hand and then moved to press up against the wall in the most shadow-filled part of the hall.

Technically the were on the run from unknown bad guys and carrying something potentially very dangerous, but Root couldn't just let the opportunity pass her by. She pressed up against Shaw, more or less pinning her to the wall.

“Why do you always pick the worst times for this stuff?” Shaw hissed at her. She didn't make any move to get away.

“I like the extra challenge.”

Footsteps grew louder from the hall they'd just left and they both froze, breathing as quietly as they could. The both relaxed a little when the footsteps died away.

“Figured they'd stick to the main hall,” Shaw said. “Lucky they didn't split up though.”

“Wanna get lucky again?” She hadn't really been serious, but Shaw looked up at her as if considering her options.

Which was when they heard the next noise: softer footsteps, different from the first bunch in every way possible.

“Shit. Automaton.” Shaw finally pushed her off and Root didn't try to stop her. The situation had just gotten much, much worse.

Neither of them made any move to run now. The creepy robots Samaritan used were able to track them in just about every conceivable way and turning their back on it wasn't a option.

“Take out the legs if you can.”

“Not the first time I've run into one, Shaw. I know how to deal with them.” No need to mention how her previous encounter had gone.

“Good.”

* * *

 

The automaton rounded the corner and, like always, Shaw felt a sense of wrongness looking at the things. Unlike the one on the street earlier, this was one of the newest models that she hadn't thought were used anywhere outside of Melior yet--proportioned like a human, but made of dull grey metal. The head was modeled to look like a human, except all the features were undefined, only the slightest bump hinting at a nose and small indents for the eyes and mouth. It looked just human enough that the extremely inhuman way it moved was uncomfortable to observe.

Shaw didn't bother trying to shoot it (they weren't bulletproof, but she'd need a lot more bullets than she had to take it down) and instead swung right at its head with her bionic arm.

The automaton sidestepped her blow with a weird twisting movement that would have broken the spine of an actual human. It raised one elegant, metal arm and swung it at them so fast it blurred.

Fortunately Shaw had been expecting that and had already started moving back out of range. Even the older automatons packed a punch, but these news ones were terrifyingly deadly.

Root had her ridiculous sword out for some reason and was eyeing the approaching metal death robot speculatively. Well, if she wanted to tangle with it, it wouldn’t be Shaw's fault if her silly sword got trashed.

“Do you think you could make a tear in it?” Root asked, voice calm like she was discussing the weather and not their possible deaths.

“A tear?” Shaw deflected another swing from the automaton as best she could. The jolt of it travelled up her arm into her shoulder and she held back a wince. Her arm might be strong, but her body had to back it up and no matter how tough she was she couldn't match a machine on some things.

“An opening. So I can get something inside it.” Root dropped into a crouch and struck out with her sword, aiming at the automaton’s knee. For a wonder, the sword didn't snap on contact, but it didn't do much damage either.

It did get the automaton’s attention though and it turned to advance on Root.

“Its arm,” Root prompted. “Pull it loose a little.” She retreated a step.

Shaw wasn't sure she could rip the thing's arm off, but she didn't have a better idea. Even though she couldn't feel as much with her bionic arm (especially with her gloves on), there was still the weirdest sensation of wrongness when she touched the thing. Like it was greasy and had a slight current running through it. She got a good grip on its upper arm and yanked for all she was worth.

The automaton lashed out with its free arm without even turning to look at her (did it need to have its head pointed at her to ‘see’ her?). She didn't let go quite fast enough and the thin and sharp fingers of its hand scraped along her arm.

It might not have hurt nearly as much as if it'd been her normal arm, but it still fucking hurt.

But she must have succeeded in what she'd set out to do because Root was suddenly in her space, ducking under the automaton’s arm and smacking something on the arm Shaw had damaged.

The automaton casually reversed its swing and backhanded Root, an attack she didn't quite manage to dodge, and sent her flying into Shaw with enough force that they both ended up sprawled on the ground.

Shaw shoved Root off of her and rolled back up to her feet, ready to fight, but the automaton had stopped. It shook itself all over, like a dog coming out of water, and then went limp and still.

“What'd you do to it?” Shaw asked, not taking her eyes off of it. Could still be a trap.

“Put a microbot with a nasty little program on it in the tear you made. It crawled inside and latched onto it. It's shut down for now and it's memory has been wiped, but it'll reboot in maybe twenty minutes.”

Root's voice sounded a little off and Shaw turned around to get a look at her. She was still on the ground, holding her left arm like it was causing her a lot of pain.

“Let me see that.”

Root tried to smile at her but it looked more like a grimace. “It's fine for now. We need to move.”

She had to help Root get up and wait for her to retrieve her sword from where it had landed further down the hall before they could run further into the endless maze of tunnels.

* * *

 

Reese eyed the Local Enforcement patrol cautiously. They had no reason to cause him any trouble, but their sudden appearance on the street was suspicious.

What had Root gotten them into this time?

He redoubled his grip on the bag of supplies he'd bought and ducked down a side street.

“Hey, Reese, got a second?”

Shaw's voice over the comm did little to assuage his concerns.

“You have something to do with the increase in Enforcement activity in the area?”

“Probably. They crashed our party and sent one of those fancy new automatons after us.”

Reese almost missed a step. He'd seen the new automatons in action before. “Are you okay? Where are you?”

“We're okay for now. Root had some mini robot thing that shut it down, but we're laying low for a few hours.”

“Laying low where?” There was some echo from wherever it was.

“Good question. Some kind of underground tunnel system. Not sure how to get out and even if I were, wouldn't be able to tell if I was walking into an Enforcement patrol.”

“You mean...you're _lost_?” Reese couldn't keep the glee out of his voice. Sameen ‘I don't need a map to navigate the far reaches of space’ Shaw was lost. In a tunnel.

“Fuck off. I need you to get a lock on our position and find an exit for us from up there, okay?”

“Because you're lost.”

“Reese….” Shaw's tone promised that he was in for a painful future.

“Okay, but I don't have any way to track you so how am I supposed to….”

“Hands in the air!”

Reese groaned at the new voice from behind him. He hadn't thought he'd been doing anything that would draw Enforcement’s attention.

“I'll have to get back to you on that,” he said quietly to Shaw before raising his hands.

* * *

 

Root hissed in pain and tried to pull away, but Shaw's grip on her was inescapable.

“Don't think anything is broken,” Shaw said, prodding her arm again. “Gonna hurt like hell for a while though.”

“I've had worse.” Though she wouldn't have turned down some painkillers. The automaton hadn't hit her with its full force, but it had hit her hard enough to knock her over. Good thing Shaw had made a comfortable landing pad.

“You have,” Shaw agreed. She sounded annoyed, though Root wasn't sure why.

They were in what must have been a living quarter for someone doing maintenance or security down here at one point. There was enough dust that it was clear no one had lived here for weeks, but it probably hadn't been abandoned much longer than that. It was a small room off the main hallways, with a bed, a microwave, and a few empty shelves. Whoever had lived here had either taken all their stuff with them or hadn't had much to start with.

“Don't suppose your buddy has come back online?” Shaw asked.

“Not yet.” The Machine had been very quiet since they’d landed here. And as much as Root missed Her, she was glad for a little silence now because her head _ached_. She pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead.

“It's the trap Harper mentioned isn't it?”

Root lowered her hand and turned to look at Shaw, puzzled. “What's the trap?” Did she mean the automaton?

“Something's messing with your implant. Unless you want me to believe you always run around in this much pain?”

“Blinking has always been a bit of an adventure for me, but…” It _had_ been a lot worse the last time and the horrible headaches had started on the planet right before that, which might mean…. “Oh.”

A trap that was everywhere, and not necessarily one meant for her. Not primarily for her, anyway.

“It's Samaritan, isn't it?” Shaw asked. “It hack you or something?”

“We'd be dead if it had.” There would have been a lot more than one automaton. “No, I think it's attacking me the only way it can. Some kind of sonic attack most likely.” Whatever the attack was doing must have been making blinking worse after she was exposed to it.

“It's using sound waves?”

“Possibly.” It made a lot of sense now that she thought about it. “Certain frequencies can affect humans even if they're outside the limit of our hearing. Ultrasound and infrasound. People exposed to infrasound sometimes report feeling sick or scared. I don't think this is quite that, but the same idea maybe. Broadcasting a signal on every planet it can specifically designed to be picked up by my implant without me even noticing.”

“So you can't, I don't know, tune it out? Change the settings?” Shaw looked disgusted with her own question.

“My implant is a receiver, and She had it built to be able to pick up a wide range of frequencies. She filters out a lot of it for me when She's able to, but I do pick up random signals sometimes. There's no off button, I mean.”

“Samaritan is trying to slow you down. Make you sick. Make it hard for you to blink so you can't run.” Shaw was nodding to herself.

“Well, yes, but I think that's not the main goal. I'd imagine Samaritan is hoping the Machine will step in to help me. Maybe it has some way of tracking interference with its signal? I'm not sure.”

Shaw sat down on the floor across from the bed. “We're going to have to blink again to get out of here. And a few more times after that.”

“I've got some sedatives I take before blink. I get a nice nap, and a headache, and that's all.”

“That's not a long-term solution.”

“Why Shaw, I didn't know you cared.”

Shaw scoffed and turned away.

It wasn't that Root wasn't worried, it was more like she didn't have time to be worried. The Machine needed her help and that came before worrying about a bunch of silly headaches.

Shaw stood up a few minutes later. “We should head back now.”

“They're still going to be looking for us.”

“They'll be looking for _you_. So all we need to do is hide you from Enforcement.”

“And I suppose you have a plan for that?”

“Something like that.”

* * *

 

Shaw didn't have a plan.

It was just that the odds of them being found if they stayed in one place were higher than the odds if they moved. And they couldn't hide down here for forever.

Root froze. “I hear something.”

There was nowhere to hide in this part of the tunnel so they were going to have to fight. Fortunately the footsteps sounded human this time.

“Shaw? That you?”

Shaw sighed in relief. “It's us, Reese.”

Reese came around the corner and looked them over. “You look like you lost a fight.”

“We'll live. How'd you find us?”

“Help from a friend. And I've got a way back to the ship for all of us.”

Shaw was a bit annoyed that Reese had come up with a plan before her, but she'd take anything right now. “Which is?”

“We're going to get arrested.”

* * *

 

“Your friend's face is all over the wanted notice boards, you know.”

“I'm aware.”

Shaw got to ride in the front of the small Enforcement craft with their real rescuer.

“We owe you one, Carter.”

“Hmph. More than one now.”

Carter was Galactic Enforcement rather than Local so she wasn't going to get stopped driving around unless the ISA decided to interfere, and they had no reason to suspect Root to be in the little land hovercraft that Carter had commandeered.

“I get the feeling you two are in over your heads. Again.” Carter glanced in the rearview mirror at Root who hadn't said a word the whole ride. When Shaw looked back at her, her lips were pressed together, her face as a bit pale, and she was fidgeting with her ear.

They needed to sort this shit out before they got to Melior.

“We’ve got everything under control,” Reese protested.

Shaw didn't even bother to echo Carter's disbelieving snort at that because she knew Reese didn't believe it either.

“If I keep arresting you and letting you go, it's going to get all of us in a lot more trouble. Hope this job you're on is taking you somewhere off the radar for a while.”

“Yeah, about that…”

Carter didn't look surprised, but she did look a bit resigned. “Melior?”

Shaw shrugged. “Work is work.”

“Not much work you can do if you're in a Samaritan jail. Even I can't help you then.”

“Guess we'd better not get caught then,” Shaw said.

Carter stopped the craft outside the Indigo Five. “Let me know how that works out for you. Oh, and I'm writing you up for a docking violation. This landing zone is for two hours only and you've been here three.”

“Seriously?”

“A bad reason for picking you lot up is better than no reason at all.”

Shaw sighed. “Root can pay it.”

“I expect she can if she really robbed a galactic bank.” Carter half-turned to look back at Root. “You _did_ rob a bank, right?”

Root smiled sweetly. “Several actually.”

“Well, at least you're getting paid well for whatever this is.”

Shaw had expected Carter to try and arrest Root for real, but she hadn't even brought it up. Maybe Reese had said something to her.

She waited until they’d all walked halfway back to the ship before she stopped. “Forgot to tell Carter something. I'll be back in a second.”

Reese just nodded, but Root frowned a little, like she thought maybe Shaw was up to something.

“Don't suppose you came back to let me in on what you two are involved in?” Carter asked when Shaw got back to her craft.

“No. Because I don't have all the details either. I needed another favor actually.” She hated asking for something else after Carter had just saved their asses, but she didn't have a better option. “If I needed to get somewhere really fast, say like a couple gates away, and I didn't have time to sit and wait for my turn….”

Carter raised an eyebrow. “Thought your mysterious boss took care of things like that for you.”

“Usually. But they might not approve of my destination, so….”

Galactic Enforcement got to line jump the blink queues as they wanted, and also got access to codes that could be used once by any ship to jump a queue line that they could give out at their discretion. Most Enforcement agents sold them to the highest bidder, but Carter saved hers for real emergencies. Shaw wasn't sure she'd be willing to give her one, but it was worth a shot.

“This sort of thing will make you more conspicuous, not less.”

“Not going to use it here. The second blink is the one that'll matter time-wise.”

Carter sighed. “If I give you this, you need to tell me where it is you're headed.”

“Need to see a mutual friend of ours who has a talent for knowing all the right people.”

Realization dawned on Carter’s face. “That's in the opposite direction from Melior.”

“Which is why I'm going to need to go fast.” She needed Root to stay asleep until the second blink was underway.

Carter considered for a long moment. “I'll send you the code, but you owe me a full explanation next time I see you.”

“If I ever figure out what the hell is going on, you'll be the first to know.”

She waved goodbye to Carter a little regretfully. She wished like hell Carter could come stay on the Indigo Five with them and help them sort out this whole mess, but she knew that wasn't really Carter's thing.

Reese was already in the main cabin when Shaw got back to the ship, as was Bear who jumped up to welcome her back.

“You mind flying us up to the terminal?” Shaw asked Reese as she scratched behind Bear's ears.

“Thought you said I wasn't allowed to fly your precious ship ever again?”

Shaw ignored that. “Only fly near the terminal, though, and don't punch in a blink request yet. I have to go deal with Root.”

“Sounds ominous. There been a change in plan I don't know about?”

“I'll explain when I get back.”

It wasn't that she didn't want him to know, it was just that she was finding it hard to explain out loud why she was planning to take them off course just because Root was having some headaches. If he teased her, she'd have to punch his teeth in, and then who would fly the ship?

Fortunately he let her go without further questions and she slipped off the bridge to hunt down their guest.

She almost ran straight into Root in the hallway outside, no doubt on her way up to join them. Shaw had figured she was going to have to climb into Root's rickety bucket of a ship to find her, so this made things easier.

“Did you get what your needed from Carter?” Root asked.

That explained why she was here. Root had always been too nosy for her own good.

“I've got better sedatives,” she said instead of answering. “Whatever it is Samaritan is attacking you with was worse here, so maybe you'll react worse in blink. Be better if you're out cold for the duration.”

Root looked uncertain. “I was going to go back to Paradox.”

It made a little more sense to Shaw now why Root would be so eager to stay on her busted up heap of a ship. She probably felt safer being there if she was going to be drugged unconscious for hours. But Shaw didn't like the idea of that somehow. She knew Root wouldn't go for staying in the bunk Shaw had assigned her, but maybe there was another option.

Shaw gritted her teeth. “Or you could sleep in my bunk again. I'll be on the bridge the whole time anyway and it'll be more comfortable.”

If she were the type of person who felt guilt, she figured she would have felt it about how Root's face lit up at the offer.

“Getting invited back to your bed already. You just can't get enough of me.”

“Knock it off or you're uninvited.”

Root managed to hold off on the teasing until after she was sitting on the edge of Shaw’s bed, shoes off and eyeing the needle in Shaw’s hands wearily.

“How long will this put me out for?”

“Long enough.”

Root chewed on her lip and then brightened. “Do I get a good night kiss first?”

“No.”

But she didn't stop Root from grabbing the bottom of her shirt and tugging her down into a kiss.

Root’s lips were soft and insistent against hers and for a moment Shaw thought about having Reese hold off on getting them to the next terminal so she and Root could have some time to work off all the tension between them, but the longer they waited the more likely Root was to catch wind of her plans.

That didn't stop her from pushing Root back across the bed and placing the syringe on the table. She climbed on top of Root, careful not to jar the injured arm she had tucked up against herself, and went right back to kissing her with a fierce determination. She ran her fingers along Root's side, reveling in the strange electric feel of skin under her biometal hand and at the gasp it pulled from Root. Her hand made its way up Root's body under her shirt, and she paused to press her thumb into Root's ribs the same way she'd done back in that jail cell, enjoying the way Root twitched under her at the sensation.

Root pulled back from the kiss. “As much fun as I'm having, Sameen, I think we're near the terminal and I'd rather not pass out in the middle of something fun.” She tilted her head to one side and smirked. “Well, not for that reason anyway.”

Shaw studied her for a few seconds, all flushed and breathing hard. Things with Root were always complicated, but this was the first time the complications were because _she_ wanted something. She swallowed hard and than climbed off the bed and reached for the syringe again.

Root didn't flinch when Shaw injected her, though she did relax a little once the needle was out of her arm.

“They'll kick in in a minute or two. Probably best to be lying down.”

Root flopped back onto the bed. “This is the biggest waste of time spent in your bed that I can think of.”

Shaw kept her agreement to herself. She turned her attention to Root's busted up arm instead. “I'll put some ice on that while you're out.”

Root’s eyes were already drooping. “Thanks for taking care of me, Sameen.”

Root fell asleep before Shaw had finished coming up with an appropriately indignant response. Seconds after Root's eyes shut, a large furry creature shoved past Shaw and leaped lightly onto the bed. Shaw watched as Mortimer arranged himself up against Root and regarded Shaw with large, suspicious, yellow eyes.

“I'm just trying to help her,” Shaw found herself saying to the cat. He stared blankly at her, unimpressed.

She’d never felt so judged in her life.

She watched Root breathing quietly as she slept and tried not to think about how pissed she was going to be when she woke up.


	5. Station Theta

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Root is Not Pleased with Shaw's detour.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was randomly struck with motivation and inspiration and wrote this in a single day. Sometimes that happens.
> 
> Things are a bit more space sci-fi-ish than space western at the moment due to their location. Ore colonies and outer planets are more western, central systems are more cyberpunk-ish.

Root knew something was wrong even before she opened her eyes. The bed was too soft and the vibrations of the ship's engines were missing. She reached for the knife she kept in her belt as she sat upright and threw the heavy blankets back.

Her arm throbbed with pain and she tried to ignore it as she examined her surroundings.

The room she was in was beyond luxurious, and large enough to fit more than half the cabins on the Indigo Five inside it. The furniture was all made of wood, and the blankets that had until recently been on the bed looked expensive.

Definitely not on a ship then, and it was doubtful that this was Melior either. So where the hell was she and how had she gotten here?

“You there?” she asked Her softly. She breathed a little easier when She responded. “Where am I? And where are the others?”

Her fists clenched as she listened to the answer.

“I'm going to kill her.”

She didn't really want to kill Shaw though, but she was furious and a little terrified of what Shaw's actions could lead to.

“Maybe I'll start with killing John and see how that goes.”

She swung her legs over the side of the bed, cradled her hurt arm to her chest, and set out to find some answers.

* * *

 

Shaw dropped into a crouch as the automaton swung at her. She heard the whoosh of air as its arm blurred by over her head and could see how even mid-swing it was already shifting to compensate for her dodge. She scrambled backwards across the ground and rolled up to her feet in time to block another blow with her left arm.

The impact hurt like hell, both the muted pain in her arm and the shock of it travelling back up to her shoulder. She needed to be careful or that thing could rip her entire arm off.

She retreated a few steps and grabbed a long metal pole off the ground. Something like this was about the best melee weapon she could use against it since it was blunt and also long enough to keep her out of range.

The automaton came at her lightning fast, choosing to jump rather than run. She cursed and rolled to the side to avoid having the thing land on her. One of the most dangerous things about automatons was that they looked just human enough that it was easy to expect them to move or react like one, but they were far too efficient to need to mimic any living thing. She'd seen one win a fight by collapsing on top of its opponent.

She twirled the pole around like a staff and swung at the machine with a circular spin that added weight and momentum to the strike. The automaton snatched the pole mid-swing and brought it to an abrupt halt that made Shaw grunt at the impact of the halted motion travelling down her arms.

The automaton tugged on the pole almost experimentally and Shaw tightened her grip. They didn't usually use weapons, but she didn't want to risk giving it a longer range. The automaton tugged again with more effort and Shaw had to release the pole to avoid being pulled after it.

The automaton weighed the pole in its hand for a second, a disturbingly human gesture, and then tossed it aside and advanced on her again.

Shaw stepped back again and realized she had her back almost to the wall now. Not good. She waited until it was almost on her and then threw herself to one side and spun around to face it again.

The top half of the automaton rotated without the bottom half to follow her movement.

She hadn't been aware they could do that. Shit.

She started to dodge again, knowing that she'd never be fast enough. Time felt like it slowed down as its metal hand rushed towards her face and…

“Freeze.” She barely managed to get the word out in time.

The hand halted, centimeters from crushing her skull.

She stood still, her heavy breaths echoing in her ears, as she stared at the metal hand that could so easily have killed her. Distantly she was aware of the sweat running down her back and the strands of escaped hair stuck to her face and the feel of the ground beneath her bare feet.

“Disengage,” she said between breaths.

The automaton returned to its standard position and stood passively in front of her.

“As fun as this is, I'm still not sure what you hope you get out of this.”

Shaw finally looked away and over at the woman sitting behind a clear safety wall on the side on the sparring mats.

“Trying to learn their movements, see if they have any weaknesses,” Shaw explained again. She walked over to pick up the towel and water bottle she'd left on the edge of the room. “What does it matter to you, Zoe? It’s not like I'm going to bust up your fancy robot.”

Zoe Morgan raised one perfectly sculpted eyebrow at her in doubt. “You certainly tried your best.”

“And didn't even land one blow. If this model had been the one coming after us on Desmond IV, we'd be dead right now.” Enforcement must have been pouring tons of money into researching them. Zoe wouldn't say how she'd acquired one, but it had probably cost her a lot.

“There's a cheerful thought, and speaking of cheerful, your friend is finally awake.”

“Root's up?”

Zoe studied the tablet in her hands. “Yes, though she seems to be a bit angry.”

Shaw sighed. “How angry?”

“Well, she threw an antique night stand at the door to her room, I assume in an attempt to break the door down. Or maybe she was just letting off steam.”

“You locked her in?”

“No, but I put it in safety mode so she would have needed to punch in a few commands to open it. I suppose she thought that would take too long.”

Shaw was surprised Root had gone for brute force over hacking the door. She must really be pissed. “Any way we can reroute her towards Reese?” Maybe Root could get all the anger out of her system before Shaw had to deal with her.

“Hmm, normally that would be easy, but she seems to have hacked a wall console and gone right through all my very expensive and sophisticated security systems. I'm not sure why I agreed to let you bring her on board.”

“So she's--”

“On her way here right now.”

Shaw was sore and a bit demoralized from her sparring match. She didn't need this right now, but maybe she could at least tip the odds a little.

“Guess there's no sense in putting off the inevitable.” She peeled her sweaty shirt off and tossed it aside in favor of a towel to mop the sweat off her face. If Zoe found her actions odd at all, she didn't say.

Shaw had her face buried in her towel when she heard the door to the sparring room hiss open.

“What the hell did you--”

Root's voice died off in a slightly strangled sound and her footsteps came to an abrupt halt. Shaw smirked into her towel before discarding it.

“Good to see you back up on your feet,” she said as she turned to look at Root.

Root's expression looked like her brain had had a head-on collision with itself as she struggled to be angry and gape at Shaw being all flushed and sweaty in only a sports bra and workout pants.

Root visibly gathered herself. “This isn't Melior, Shaw.” Despite the view, her voice was low and menacing. “Do you have any idea what you've done?”

“Kept you from getting yourself killed. Again.”

Root took another step towards her, keeping her injured arm tucked up against herself. “Delaying my mission on Melior could get us all killed. Did you even consider that?”

“If you pass out in the middle of your mission on Melior because of that implant it will _definitely_ get you killed.”

“I can take care of myself.” Root took another step forwards, right in front of Shaw now.

“Really? Seems like you're doing a pretty shitty job of it.”

Zoe cleared her throat loudly from behind them. Shaw had almost forgotten she was there.

“Should I leave?” Zoe asked. She looked way too amused for Shaw's liking.

Shaw stepped to the side a little. “Root, this is Zoe Morgan whose station you are currently a guest on.”

“We've met,” Root said briefly.

They had? That was news to Shaw and why the hell hadn't Zoe mentioned it?

“Not in person though,” Zoe clarified and stepped forwards to offer Root her hand. “A pleasure to finally put a face to the name.”

Root stared at her hand for a second and a little of the anger retreated from her face as she reached out to shake Zoe's hand.

Shaw wasn't fooled for a second; Root was still furious, she was just very good at hiding it.

“Zoe knows everyone and almost everyone owes her something,” Shaw said, hoping an explanation might defuse things a bit. “Including the best bionics specialists in Central.”

Root turned back to her, the anger still glinting in her eyes. “I told you, I don't need--”

“You sure about that? What's your boss say?” It was kind of a dirty move, but Shaw had no interest in playing fair.

She watched the emotions play out across Root's face: anger, annoyance, guilt, and then acceptance.

“Fine. Since we're here anyway, I suppose it couldn't hurt to see one of these specialists. Briefly.”

“Doctor Sanchez is an extremely skilled surgeon and engineer who specializes in biometal augmentation. She'll be on the station in two hours,” Zoe said.

She was watching Root carefully and Shaw couldn't blame her for that. Root was always so good at putting up a front; seeing her this agitated was unusual.

“Two hours,” Root echoed. “And then I'm leaving.” Her posture relaxed and she smiled, almost as if the last few minutes had never happened. “Zoe, do you have somewhere I can get a shower and a change of clothes while we wait?”

“Of course. I'd offer to have the system show you the way, but you seem to have already made yourself familiar with the internal station navigation system.”

Root's smile widened. “Oops.”

Zoe turned back to Shaw after Root left.

“I don't suppose you could convince her to stay out of my systems? I could threaten to kick her off the station, but I have a feeling that will only make things worse.”

“I'll ask, but…” Shaw shrugged. Root did what she wanted, always had, and right now she probably wouldn't want to listen to anything Shaw had to say. “I'll talk to her.” She probably wouldn't.

“I trust you, Shaw, and John, but I've done deals with Root before and while she always delivers, she's not someone I'd trust anymore than I had to.”

It was meant to be cautionary, Shaw knew. Zoe was warning her not to trust Root too much, and she could understand why. But she kept thinking back to that night on Melior when Root had shown up on her doorstep half dead. She thought that maybe she'd gotten a glimpse of who Root actually was under all her facades. And the fact that half-dead Root had decided that she could trust Shaw to take care of her had to mean something.

Also, the Machine trusted her and even though Shaw sometimes wondered about the Machine's decisions, that still held a lot of weight for her.

“I'll talk to her,” Shaw said again, and then grabbed her shirt and left to go find her.

* * *

 

There were fifteen observation decks on Theta Station, the ‘small’ space station that Zoe Morgan owned, and Root got the internal navigation system to take her to the smallest one which, it told her, was currently empty.

The navigation system was kind of cool, if a bit too flashy for her tastes. Colored lights flashed along the strips in the middle of the corridor walls to lead people to their destination. Instructions or queries could be entered in the little consoles stationed at every corner. The system only responded to inputs from station residents and registered guests and Root had been neither when she'd woken up. Now the system recognized her as an administrator.

It had probably been a bad move, hacking the system in such a noticeable way, but she'd been a bit angry at the time. Maybe she'd remove herself from the system and apologize to Zoe later and then hack back in more discreetly. It would be the polite thing to do.

The observation deck was a large dark room full of raised levels almost like enormous stairs to allow for as many people as possible to sit and enjoy the view out of the huge curved window that made up the entire outer wall of the room. The view of space and a nearby planet out the window was breathtaking, but Root wasn't in the mood to be impressed.

She didn't look up when the door hissed open since she'd set the internal nav to let her know if anyone was coming.

“Glad to see you took that shower,” Shaw said from the top of the room. “Because you definitely needed one.”

“I aim to please.”

Shaw jumped down a few levels until she was standing next to where Root sat.

“Nice view.”

“I suppose.” Root looked at the green planet floating in the quiet of the void. “That's Theta 52, one of the few plants we've found that was almost human habitable without any terraforming. It's still about 99% undeveloped and the only people who live there are the extremely wealthy and the small amount of staff they require. It could support roughly four hundred and three times its current population with little to no impact on the original ecosystem, but of course the billionaires who live there don't want it opened up to other people.”

She hadn't known about Theta 52 specifically before the Machine had filled her in, but it was hardly the only situation like that in the universe.

“Meanwhile people are sick and dying on barely terraformed worlds mining biometal for just enough credits to not starve to death.”

Shaw sat down next to her. “Still a nice view. Can't see the rich assholes from up here.”

“Some of them are up here, too, you know.”

“What's your point?”

“She was trying to build a better world for all of us, Shaw, and now all She can do is watch while Samaritan makes things worse for the people who need help the most.”

“You don't even like people.”

“There's some people I dislike more than others.”

Shaw chuckled. “Sounds about right.” She leaned against the back of the step. “You planning to run off without us now?”

Root had definitely thought about it for a few minutes, but she'd realized that it would be a bad move, and also she found she didn't wasn't to leave the Indigo Five just yet. “Don't worry, Sameen, you're still stuck with me.”

“So you're not pissed that I drugged you and dragged you days in the wrong direction?”

“I was, but--” Root turned to smirk at her. “--I probably would have done the same to you if our situations had been reversed. And it's kind of sweet that you cared enough to do that.”

Shaw bristled indignantly at that, but then relaxed and shook her head in amusement. “At least I don't have to worry about you strangling me in my sleep or anything.”

“Well, maybe if you ask nicely.” She looked back out the window at the silent expanse of space. “Can you do a favor for me?”

“Not without knowing what it is first.”

“Well, obviously.” Root scooted back to lean on the step next to Shaw. “If this doctor needs to upgrade or reconfigure my implant, I want you to be there. Keep an eye on them.”

“This doctor knows way more about bionic procedures than I do.”

“I'm aware of the doctor's qualifications. I just don't trust them.”

“Guess that makes sense. Don't think Zoe would purposefully bring in someone we couldn't trust, but that doesn't mean they're trustworthy either.”

“So you'll keep an eye on them?”

“Yeah, I can do that.”

Root breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. Thank you.” There was only so much the Machine could do to protect her in Her current state and she felt better knowing Shaw would watch her back.

“I need to have the doctor take a look at my arm, anyway.”

“What happened to your arm?” Root asked, already reaching to examine it.

Shaw didn't brush her off for once and in the dim light Root could just make out nasty furrows down the side of Shaw's biometal arm. She remembered the automaton in the tunnels below Desmond IV grazing Shaw's arm, but she hadn't realized it had actually done any damage.

Shaw twisted her arm back and forth a little to show it still worked. “Didn't damage anything too important, but it's better to get it checked and patched to make sure the structural integrity is okay.”

“Didn't this hurt?” Root ran her fingers along the grooves in the metal and Shaw twitched under her touch. “Does it still hurt now?”

“Hurt a little when I got hit, but it's back to normal now.”

“So just the normal sensory feedback then?” Root asked and brushed her fingers over the surface of Shaw's arm feather-light.

“Yeah, just normal feedback,” Shaw agreed.

Her voice sounded a little odd and Root looked up to see her eyes were slightly too wide. Root held back a smirk and ghosted her fingers over Shaw's arm again.

Shaw grabbed her wrist with her other hand. “Now you're doing it on purpose.”

“Is that a problem?” Shaw's hand was a bit sweaty against her wrist.

“Root.”

Root recognized the request in her voice and withdrew her hand.

They both turned to look back out the window at the distant green planet.

“How much did I screw up the Machine's plans?” Shaw asked after a couple quiet minutes.

“I'm not completely sure.” Mostly because she still didn't know all of Her plans. “She can't talk to me much, but She did say I should wait and see this doctor so I guess we're okay for now. Or the damage is already done.”

“I'm not going to apologize if that's what you're angling for.”

“I'd be insulted if you did.” She looked sideways at Shaw. “Why not?”

“Why aren't I going to apologize? Because I don't--”

“No, I mean why not this?” She ran her fingers up the inside of Shaw's arm again.

Shaw turned to look at her incredulously. “Because there's a very exclusive doctor showing up any minute and we're both going to have to go see them as soon as they get here. I don't think they're gonna want to wait around while we shower. Also there's cameras everywhere in this place.”

Those were all much sillier reasons than the ones Root had been worried about.

“The doctor's ship is still two hours out. Maybe three. Traffic delays at a terminal.”

“How do you…. The Machine play lookout for all your illicit affairs?”

“Just the important ones. And as for the cameras…” Root tilted her head to one side. “Station nav? Shut down all camera feeds to this room for the next hour. And keep the door locked.” She grinned at Shaw. “There's an almost infinite number of perks to being me.”

Shaw shook her head. “Zoe is going to have us both thrown off her station.”

“Zoe,” Root said as her fingers ran up Shaw's arm to her shoulder, “is busy scolding John. Something about getting cat hair on all the furniture.”

“Cat hair?” Shaw asked in a distracted voice.

“I think Mortimer might be using his dresser as a bed. It means he's decided that John's not important enough to claim possessions of his own. Maybe I should let him know.”

Shaw's hand shot up to grab her wrist again, but this time her intent was different.

“You can tell him later,” she said and pulled Root towards her.

The steps weren't wide enough for much in the way of maneuvering so Root ended up sitting sideways between Shaw's legs with her own legs bent over one of Shaw's thighs. It wasn't the best position for anything beyond some preliminary making out, but Root figured they could improvise as they went.

Other than their tragically short encounters in the jail cell and then in Shaw's bunk, Root hadn't gotten to appreciate Shaw up close like this in far too long. She was dimly aware that she was making very small whimpering noises into Shaw's mouth but couldn't bring herself to care much, especially not when Shaw groaned in response.

She enjoyed the solid weight of Shaw's bionic arm along her back as she bit down sharply and without warning on the side of Shaw's neck.

“Fuck!”

Shaw twitched under her and her arm tightened even more against Root as she leaned into the bite. Shaw hadn't showered after her workout earlier and her skin still tasted like sweat.

Root didn't even have time to register get surprise when Shaw spun them sideways and pressed her down along the length of the step.

“Your arm okay like this?” Shaw asked from where she hovered over her.

“My what?” Oh, right, her injured arm. That had definitely not been even close to the first thing on her mind. “Oh, yeah, it's fine.”

She balled her hands into the front of Shaw's shirt and pulled her down to kiss her again. God, how could she have forgotten how good Shaw was at this? Or maybe she hadn't forgotten, but the memories just didn't live up to the actuality of Shaw biting at her bottom lip as her whole body pressed up against Root's.

When Shaw moved down to pay some attention to the column of her throat, she tipped her head back and to the side so she could see the stars outside the window as Shaw returned the favor and sank her teeth in. She wrapped one leg around Shaw to pull her in even closer.

“Shaw?” she asked a little faintly.

“Hmm?” Shaw pulled back enough to look at her.

“Are you going to--”

Shaw's hand clamped down over her mouth before she even got the sentence halfway out.

“You make one joke about seeing stars and I'm leaving you locked in the smallest storage bay on the Indigo Five until the doctor gets here. We clear?”

Root laughed against her hand and then nodded.

“I'll be good,” she said when Shaw took her hand away.

“Who said anything about being good?” Shaw asked and leaned back down to kiss her again.

* * *

 

“Haven't seen a scanner this fancy in a while,” Shaw said as she eyed the 3D projection of Root's implant hovering on the back of the huge machine. “Maybe not since med school.”

“Ms. Morgan does pride herself of having the best equipment available,” said Dr. Sanchez, a middle aged woman in a lab coat who'd won points with Shaw for not batting an eye at the fact both her and Root had a wealth of suspicious marks on their necks.

“What's this bit do?” Shaw asked poking at the projection.

“Which bit?” Root tried to turn to look from the seat she was sitting in which made the projection blur and fuzz out as she moved away from the scanner camera.

“Stop. Moving.” The annoyance in Dr. Sanchez's voice was probably due to the fact Root was a very bad patient and seemingly incapable of following simple instructions like ‘sit still’.

“This part here doesn't look like any sort of implant I've seen before,” Shaw said once the image was stable again. “Looks like some really fancy interstellar communications array shrunk down to almost nothing.” Most arrays she'd seen like this were larger than buildings. There was no way humans had invented this yet, which meant that the Machine must have.

If the Machine could make something this advanced, then so could Samaritan. Not a great thought.

“Yes, it certainly does look like that, doesn't it?” Dr. Sanchez examined the projection thoughtfully. “Well, I suppose this explains why I ended up with a communications engineer on my flight here at the last minute.”

Shaw wasn't sure how the Machine had managed that one, but in short order there was a very tired-looking woman with nerdy glasses (that Shaw thought might look good on Root) next to Dr. Sanchez peering at the projection. Shaw slipped away to go stand next to Root.

“Who actually made that thing?” she asked quietly. “Because the Machine must have designed it, right?”

“She had the whole thing 3D printed for me on some of the best printers in the universe and uploaded some software onto it. Then we found a very good doctor who didn't ask too many questions to install it for me.” Root sighed. “This is really boring.”

Shaw had gotten the impression that she wasn't thrilled with the others peering at her implant like it was some sort of marvel (which, to be fair, it was).

“Zoe has some fancy dinner planned for us later.”

“That sounds even more boring.”

Dr. Sanchez and the engineer finished their very excited discussion and Sanchez came over to talk to them.

“We think we can upgrade your implant. Though when I say upgrade…” Sanchez shook her head. “That implant is more advanced than anything either of us has ever seen.”

“How can you upgrade it then?” Shaw asked suspiciously.

“The principles are still the same, despite the size of the equipment. We can add in some extra components for filtering which might help tune out rogue signals. Also, in case that doesn't work, we can add an external switch that will let you kill all signals not coming directly from the onboard mic.”

“So she could stop receiving anything but what she'd hear normally?”

“Exactly.”

Shaw looked at Root to see how she was taking the suggestion.

“How long will it take?” Root asked, face unreadable.

“The components we'd need are fairly common and it wouldn't take too long to configure them. Ms. Morgan explained that this was needed immediately, so maybe an hour or two?”

Root was quiet for a few seconds and Shaw recognized the look on her face as one she got when she was listening to the Machine.

“Fine,” she said finally. “Just get it done.”

The engineer had to do most of the initial work which left Sanchez free to examine Shaw's arm.

“There aren't many things that could leave a mark in biometal like this,” she said as she looked at the gouges in Shaw's arm.

Root was hovering nearby and smirked at that. “I must have gotten a little carried away,” she said apologetically.

Sanchez didn't even blink. “Hate to say it, Ms. Root, but I think your girlfriend here might be stepping out on you with an Enforcement automaton.”

Shaw made a slightly choked sound, but her annoyance faded instantly at the miffed look on Root's face. She didn't like it when other people made the jokes.

“That _is_ what caused this, right?” Sanchez asked, completely ignoring their reactions.

“Get to meet all sorts of interesting folks travelling,” Shaw said. She wasn't about to explain why they'd tangled with an automaton anymore than they'd explained exactly what Root's implant was for.

“Think this can just be sorted with a patch job then.” Sanchez pulled something that looked like a huge plastic syringe full of silver liquid out of her bag. “The craftsmanship on your arm is excellent, by the way. Truly a work of art.”

“She really is,” Root agreed and patted Shaw on the head when she glared at her.

Shaw had gotten her arm busted up enough times that she knew how patching went, but it still felt weird. The liquid metal from the syringe filled the grooves left on her arm as if they knew what it was supposed to look like undamaged. Shaw didn't completely get how it worked, something to do with biometal memory. The correct undamaged shape of her arm was like a mold that the metal automatically filled. It felt beyond weird to have it crawl over her arm and graft itself to the existing metal.

“Does it hurt?” Root asked curiously.

“No, it just, urgh, it feels wrong.”

Root leaned over to watch. “I've never seen this done up close before.”

“Gets a bit old after the first few times.” Shaw could feel when the metal settled and melded itself into her arm. The only good thing about this was that it didn't take very long.

“Should be as good as new by tomorrow,” Sanchez said. She left to go see what the engineer was up to as soon as she was satisfied Shaw's arm had accepted the patch.

“You okay with getting this upgrade?” Shaw asked now that they were alone on one side of the lab.

“I'm not thrilled about having minor surgery in an hour, but if they can deliver on their promise it could be worth it.” She bit her lip and looked at Shaw a little uncertainly. “You going to stick around for that part?”

“Said I would.” She could tell Root wasn't looking forwards to this at all. “Not like you to be nervous about stuff like this.”

Root moved a step away and looked out over the lab. “Back when I got the implant the first time, I had Her to keep an eye on me, but if the doctor had done something there wouldn't have been any way for Her to have stopped him.”

“Guess humans are useful for something after all.”

“Oh there's a lot of things you're _very_ useful for, sweetie.”

Shaw actually found herself enjoying watching the procedure to upgrade Root's implant. She'd wanted to be a surgeon and even now there was a slight sting of regret that she hadn't gone down that path. Sanchez had been impressed enough with her medical knowledge that she let her hover within reason while she did the operation.

It was a minor operation, only a small incision right along the scar behind Root's ear so the internal component could be reached enough to add the filter mechanism. That part involved a microscope and tweezers and a lot of slow, patient maneuvering. After that, Sanchez made a new tiny incision right below the original one to install the switch they were adding. The entire procedure took maybe an hour and Root stayed so completely still the entire time that Shaw wondered if she hadn't fallen asleep.

But Root was wide awake when Sanchez finished and told her she could sit up. She brushed her hair back into place to hide the bandaging while nodding absently at Sanchez's list of care instructions.

It wasn't until after they'd finished up and headed back into the corridors that Shaw remembered just how much Root hated having anyone touch her bad ear. Root raised one hand to hover over the new bandages and shuddered with distaste.

“It hurt?”

“No, whatever she used to numb it hasn't worn off yet. If it's anything like when I got it installed it'll hurt like hell tonight and tomorrow and then be only moderately painful for a week or two.”

“At least it's over now and you're theoretically Samaritan-proof again.”

“Hmm, thanks for sitting through that. Hope it wasn't too dull.”

“It was kind of cool actually.”

Root looked over at her thoughtfully. “You know, if you wanted to go back into medicine at some point, She could easily manage that, even now. Might take Her longer with Samaritan on the prowl, but She could make it happen.”

Shaw turned that thought over in her head a few times. Somehow even with all the fake identities she'd used over the years she'd never once thought to just _become_ a doctor and take back that life she'd been denied. But now she couldn't imagine a life stuck on one planet in the confines of a normal job. And even if she'd been a field medic she didn't think she'd be able to sit back while other people were out fighting.

“No,” she said finally. “That's not...I don't think that'd work for me anymore.”

Root looked curious, but she didn't press further.

“Take it we need to leave first thing tomorrow?” Shaw asked as they neared the rooms they'd been assigned.

“As early as we can,” Root agreed. “Though since we're staying the night anyway, no reason we shouldn't _enjoy_ the accommodations.”

Shaw wasn't going to argue with that logic, though she suspected Root might not be so eager later when that local anesthetic wore off. “Let's get ready for dinner then.”

* * *

 

Dinner was even more excruciating than having her head sliced open, in Root's opinion. Zoe, Shaw, and John were clearly all old friends and talked a lot about things that Root had no context for. Normally the Machine could have helped her out, but Root's implant was switched off from everything but local noise for the next twenty four hours. Of course she'd turned it back on anyway against her doctor's orders just to make sure she could still hear Her, but it was off again now.

Zoe was in the middle of a story about John causing a minor brawl at a banquet he'd been her bodyguard at. Root stared at the flame of one of the candles on the solid wood table and tried to imagine the entire room catching on fire.

She understood on some level that Zoe wasn't the same as those rich people down on Theta 52. Not nearly wealthy enough for starters. A small space station wasn't in the same tax bracket as a villa on a basically uninhibited luxury planet, and Zoe used her moderate wealth and connections to do some real good in the universe. Root couldn't fault her _just_ for being rich, after all, since she'd had an exorbitant amount of wealth herself several times during her life, but Zoe was part of the wealthier class in the universe in a way Root never had been and never would want to be, and it left a bad taste in her mouth to accept her help.

It wouldn't stop her from taking any help offered, but she wasn't thrilled about it. And John, for all that he lived on a spaceship and ate watery soup broth for dinner, he fit into Zoe's world almost naturally. Shaw could fake it if she needed to, Root knew, but there was something about her that made it clear to Root that this wasn't her sort of thing.

Definitely something they had in common.

“You'd have to ask Root about that.”

Shaw's words brought her back to the conversation.

“Ask me what?” Her head was starting to throb as the local anesthetic wore off.

“Zoe asked what we were planning to do on Melior.”

“Oh, you know, see the sights, feed the pigeons.” Not that there were any pigeons left.

“You're going to have to tell us eventually,” John pointed out. “Why not now? Maybe there's something Zoe knows that could help.”

Root chose to shrug and drink some more of the ridiculously expensive (and, she had to admit, very good) wine instead of answering.

Shaw cleared her throat. “That automaton Zoe has is one of the newest models that's due to get introduced on Melior really soon. That thing is at least twice as deadly as the one we ran into.”

Which begged the question how Zoe had gotten her hands on a prototype. Maybe Shaw had a point about Zoe being able to help them.

It would have helped if she knew more about what the Machine expected her to do.

“I suppose we'll have to be careful to avoid them then.”

“Right.” The sarcasm in Shaw's voice was probably merited.

The anesthetic had worn off almost completely now and the thought of even trying to chew food sounded horrendous, but at least it gave her a valid excuse to escape.

“I think I need to go take some painkillers and lie down now,” she said and quickly excused herself from the room.

She felt a little better once she was out in the corridors with only the ship navigation system for company. Computers were so much easier to deal with.

The painkillers the doctor had left her packed a punch and she fell asleep without meaning to and didn't wake up until her door slid open an hour later.

“Sorry,” Shaw said from the doorway. “Didn't know you were asleep.” She looked appreciatively at the remains of the small table Root had smashed earlier which were still scattered across the floor.

“Think I might need a raincheck on the fun and games,” Root said around a huge yawn that made her face hurt all over again.

“Yeah, I figured.” Shaw rubbed the back of her neck with one hand awkwardly.

Root wondered if that meant Shaw had just come to check on her. She would have smiled if that hadn't sounded excruciatingly painful.

“I'll, uh, I'll see you in...good night.” Shaw turned to leave.

“Sameen.”

Shaw paused in the doorway but didn't turn back. Her entire posture was stiff with discomfort.

“You could still stay, if you wanted.”

Shaw's shoulders stiffened slightly more but then relaxed after a second.

“Good night, Root,” she said in a voice that was firm but not annoyed.

Root switched off the lights and relaxed back into the luxurious bed. Maybe her mission had been delayed a bit, but she couldn't help but feel she'd made progress.

 


End file.
